Mumbai: The opposition Congress and the NCP on Tuesday slammed the Shinde-Fadnavis government over the new survey that has put deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis ahead of CM Eknath Shinde with 35 per cent of votes. The survey also concluded that the opposition would put up a poor show if the elections are held in the state now.
Congress, NCP doubt survey's credibility; slam ruling alliance
The Congress accused the two government allies of engaging in a pointless exercise of undermining each other through the publication of fabricated surveys. Meanwhile, the NCP commented that the survey fails to accurately represent the sentiments of the people.
"The recent election survey conducted by News Arena India does not accurately reflect the genuine sentiment of the voters in Maharashtra," stated Mahesh Tapase, the Chief Spokesperson of the NCP. Following a meeting with party MLAs, state party chief Jayant Patil expressed confidence that the NCP would emerge as the primary party with the support of the people if elections were held at present.
"The highly discussed survey doesn't appear to be very credible. Our party has also conducted several private surveys, and based on our findings, it is evident that the NCP is emerging as a prominent party with the highest level of public support," stated Patil.
Patil further clarified that the party's survey was conducted in specific constituencies, and the findings were shared with the party MLAs during the Tuesday meeting.
What does the survey say?
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe criticized the survey, stating that the two allies in the current state government are solely focused on undermining each other."First, Shinde came up with a survey and extensively advertised to portray his superiority over DCM Fadnavis. Now, it seems that the BJP has released a survey showing their superiority. However, I want to emphasise that this survey is far detached from the actual ground reality, making it completely bogus," Londhe commented.
The recent survey conducted by News Arena India, released on Monday, indicates that Fadnavis is the most popular Chief Minister, followed by Ashok Chavan of the Congress and Ajit Pawar of the NCP, both with 21 percent of the votes. Eknath Shinde is shown with only 12 percent, while Uddhav Thackeray, the Shiv Sena (UBT) president, received nine percent.
According to the survey, the BJP is projected to become the largest party with 125 to 129 seats out of the total 288 seats in the Assembly elections. However, their alliance partner Shiv Sena, led by Shinde, is predicted to secure only 25 seats. The survey also suggests that the Congress would improve its tally with 50 to 53 seats, the NCP with 55 to 56 seats, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) with 17 to 19 seats. It further indicates that smaller parties and independent candidates would collectively obtain 12 seats. Without the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, the survey predicts the Congress would secure only 28 seats.
