Corruption is in the No 1 slot when it comes to the “important issues” that concern voters in the upcoming Assembly elections in Karnataka, according to the first South First-People’s Pulse Tracker Poll.
Some 26 percent of respondents pointed to corruption as their primary concern this election season.
The local candidate, national leadership of the party, and the chief ministerial candidate were also picked by 22 to 19 percent of the respondents in the Karnataka 2023 opinion poll as “important issues”.
While 31 percent of the respondents identified increasing inflation as one of the “main problems”, corruption remained the top pick for respondents on what the “important issues” were in the the upcoming polls. Women’s safety stood tied with corruption — with 28 per cent respondents identifying it as one of the “main problems” they face.
While 30 percent of the respondents rated the BJP government in Karnataka as “good”, 24 percent rated it as “bad”. About 37 percent respondents in the Karnataka 2023 opinion poll said they were happy with the work of their incumbent MLA and rated them as “good”.
Related: Congress to be single-largest party in Karnataka 2023 poll
While 38 percent respondents felt the Congress was better for Karnataka’s development, 36 percent respondents picked BJP. The numbers remained the same for each of the parties on the manifesto fulfilment front.
In response to a question on the factors they considered while casting their votes, a significant 36 percent of the respondents said the chief ministerial candidate was the primary yardstick. Only 11 per cent respondents said manifesto of the party mattered for them to decide on who they want to vote for, according to South First- People’s Pulse tracker poll.
In an assessment of performance of governments, 38 percent respondents vouched for the previous Congress government as having been better. However, 34 percent of the respondents respondents said the incumbent BJP government was better.
A majority of respondents — 54 percent — said their incumbent MLAs should be re-elected. However 51 percent respondents said the incumbent BJP government should not get another chance at governance, as per the tracker poll.
Karnataka 2023 opinion poll: Congress-JD(S) preferred
While about 41 percent respondents preferred an alliance government of the Congress and JD(S) in the case of a hung verdict, 38 percent preferred a BJP-JD(S) government.
The first tracker poll by People’s Pulse and Cicero for South First has predicted that the Congress would emerge as the single-largest party in the elections expected in April-May this year.
Related: AHINDA consolidation gives Congress the edge in Karnataka
The Karnataka opinion poll was conducted from 22 to 31 December, 2022. Two more tracker polls are scheduled in March 2023 and just before the elections.
The report was compiled and prepared by Cicero Founder-Director Dhananjai Joshi.
The South First-People’s Pulse Karnataka opinion poll 2023 predicted that the Congress could win 101 (+/- 9) seats, making it the single-largest party in the 224-member Assembly.
The 2023 Karnataka opinion poll has predicted 91 (+/-7) seats for the incumbent BJP and 29 (+/-5) seats for the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S).
A total sample of 4,584 respondents spread across 224 locations, spanning 56 Assembly constituencies of Karnataka, was used for the poll.
The sample is representative of the social and political demography of Karnataka with an average margin of error on the voting variable of 1.2 (+ / –) percentage points.
