Sitting Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan remains the first choice for the Chief Minister's post in the poll-bound state, as per the IANS C-Voter Battle for the States survey.
According to the survey, 46.7 per cent of the respondents backed Vijayan for the Chief Minister's post. No other leader in Kerala came even close to Vijayan. As is well known incumbents always have an advantage and this gets reflected in such surveys.
Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy secured 22.3 per cent vote for the Chief Minister's post, while eight other political leaders in the state failed to secure even 10 per cent of the total votes. State health minister and senior CPI-M leader KK Shailja was placed third with just 6.3 per cent of vote share.
Senior Congress leader and the Leader of the Opposition in Kerala Assembly, Ramesh Chennithala, and K Surendran of the BJP were jointly placed fourth with 4.1 per cent vote share.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor received 3.7 per cent votes while senior Congress leader AK Antony was backed by 3.6 per cent of the respondents for the CM's post.
The survey included over 6,000 respondents covering all the 140 Assembly constituencies in Kerala.
LDF set to get highest vote share in Kerala
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala is projected to get the highest share of votes in the coming Assembly polls in Kerala scheduled later this year, as per the IANS C-Voter Battle for the States survey.
The survey included 6,000 respondents covering all the 140 Assembly constituencies in Kerala.
As per the survey, the LDF is projected to get 42.6 per cent of votes, lower by 1.9 per cent as compared to the previous Assembly polls.
The survey suggested that the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is projected to receive the second-highest vote share at 34.6 per cent in the upcoming Assembly polls, a dip of 4.2 per cent as compared to the previous Assembly elections.
The BJP, which had received 14.9 per cent of votes in the 2016 Assembly polls, is projected to get 15.3 per cent votes, a gain of 0.4 per cent.
According to the survey, other parties will get 8.5 per cent of votes, a gain of 5.7 per cent as compared to the previous polls.
The survey suggested that the LDF alliance will secure the highest number of seats at 85 in the coming Assembly, six less than the 91 it managed in 2016.
The UDF alliance, which had secured 47 seats in 2016, is projected win 53 seats this time. The BJP alliance is projected to win one seat, same as its 2016 tally.
