Panchayat elections: Trinamul Congress to rule 15 zilla parishads: Survey

Survey shows that TMC can win anything between 526 and 684 of 928 zilla parishad seats, while BJP may bag 175-275 seats

TT, Calcutta, 01.07.23: An opinion poll conducted by CVoter for ABP Ananda has predicted a comfortable victory for the Trinamul Congress in 15 of 20 zilla parishads while five others seem too close to call.

The survey has a 5 per cent margin for error, was conducted between June 15 and 26 and involved 10,548 respondents spread over 928 zilla parishad seats.

The panchayat governance structure in Bengal comprises three tiers — gram panchayats at the village or village-cluster level, panchayat samitis at the block level and zilla parishads at the district level. This survey focused on zilla parishad seats.

The survey showed that Trinamul could win anything between 526 and 684 of 928 zilla parishad seats, while the BJP could bag 175-275 seats. The Left-Congress combine is predicted to emerge victorious in 57-120 seats.

The districts that seem too close to call, according to the survey’s numbers, are Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad and East Midnapore. In Murshidabad, it’s a close contest between Trinamul and the Left-Congress combine. The BJP is the challenger-in-chief in the other four.

The panchayat elections are scheduled for July 8.

The survey also comprised some key questions on certain factors that were deemed the campaign planks of various parties.

Some of the questions and the responses are:

■ Should central forces have been deployed from the start of the election process?

Yes: 75 per cent

No: 23 per cent

Can’t say: 2 per cent

■ Between the BJP and the Left-Congress, which is Trinamul’s biggest opponent?

BJP: 50 per cent

Left-Congress: 33 per cent

Can’t say: 17 per cent

■ How has the Trinamul government’s performance been?

Good: 35 per cent

Average: 16 per cent

Bad: 40 per cent

Can’t say: 9 per cent

■ Could minorities turn away from Trinamul this time?

Yes: 52 per cent

No: 38 per cent

Can’t say: 10 per cent