By-elections: Surveys predict Jagan win

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Pre-poll surveys conducted by various agencies for regional TV channels and opinion polls carried out for political parties show the YSR Congress led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is leading in a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 16 of the 18 Assembly constituencies where byelections are to be held in June.

One popular regional channel that aired its pre-poll survey conducted between May 1 and 10, predicted that 14 seats would likely go to Mr Reddy’s party, two to the Telugu Desam (Payakaraopet and Prattipadu) and one each to the TRS (Parkal) and the Congress (Narsapuram).

Surveys conducted by other channels and organisations have predicted similar results, except for eith-er adding or reducing the number of seats to the YSR Congress seats by two.

Another two rounds of opinion polls will probably be held to gauge the reaction to the latest developments such as the summons issued to Mr Reddy, the freezing of bank accounts of the vernacular daily Sakshi, stopping government advertising to the publication and TV channel and the attachment of his properties.

Based on the results of these surveys, YSR Congr-ess leaders hope to sweep the polls riding on a sympathy wave in favour of Mr Reddy, who may even be arrested in the illegal assets case.
Congress leaders refuse to give credence to these surveys and opinion polls and say that the situation will improve for them in the coming days.

“Jagan’s murky deals are being exposed now. People are intelligent enough to know that he will be arrested soon and sent to jail. After that, the YSR Congress will vanish slowly. We will put on a good show in the coming days,” Congress spokesperson Tulasi Reddy said.

The Congress is expecting to win in at least six Assembly constituencies: Narasannapet, Ramachan-drapuram, Narsapuram, Ongole, Tirupathi, and Allagadda.

Congress, TD deposits safe

The opinion polls conducted by the agencies say that the YSR Congress candidates will get around 40 per cent of the vote, similar to that of the Kovuru bypoll result. This is because of the presence of both the Congress and the TD in all the constituencies.

The candidates of these two parties are expected to poll around 28 to 32 per cent of votes respectively. This phenomenon is contrary to Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy's contention that candidates of both the Congress and the TD will lose their deposits.

As far as Parkal constituency is concerned, the Congress, the TD and the YSR Congress candidates will poll between 12 to 18 per cent of votes while the TRS and the BJP will garner the top two places.

It is trying to put up a good fight in another four constituencies as well.