New Delhi: Incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is much ahead of his competitors in race for the next Bihar CM with 53 percent voters choosing him as their preferred candidate to lead the state, according to India TV-CVoter opinion poll.
Bhartiya Janata Party leader and former deputy Chief Minister of the state Sushil Modi is the second choice for Bihar's voters as 18 percent would like to see him as the next CM.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is far behind in the race of Bihar CM as only five percent respondents preferred him.
BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha is also in the race of Bihar CM. Five percent respondents of the pole opted Shatrughan as their choice.
C-Voter said that the projections are based on a methodology based on random stratified sample of 10,638 interviews covering all 243 segments in Bihar during the last week of August and the first week of September. Margin of error is plus/minus 3 per cent at state level and plus/minus 5 pc at regional level, C-Voter said.
The grand alliance forged by RJD, Janata Dal(U) and Congress in Bihar is projected to win within a range of 116-132 seats in an assembly having a total of 243 seats, the polls said, results of which were telecast on Wednesday night.
The BJP-led combine, comprising BJP, LJP, RLSP and HAM, has been projected to win within a range of 94-110 seats, playing second fiddle to the Lalu-Nitish-Sonia alliance, according to the opinion poll. 'Others' have been projected to win 13-21 seats, says the poll.
In the 2010 Bihar assembly polls, the then BJP-JD(U) alliance had won 206 seats, while Lalu Prasad's RJD-led alliance with Paswan could win only 25 seats. However, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA comprising BJP, Ramvilas Paswan's LJP and Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP won in 174 assembly segments, while the Lalu-Nitish combine could win only in 51 assembly segments in the face of Modi wave.
Vote percentage wise, Lalu-Nitish-Congress combine is projected to win 43 pc votes this time, while the BJP-led combine is projected to win 40 pc votes, with 17 pc votes going to 'others'.
56 per cent respondents said the present elections will be a vote for change, while 44 pc said 'No'. 52 pc respondents wanted change in CM, while 48 pc said 'no'. 70 pc respondents wanted to change their present MLAs.
On the question of who will work for Bihar's development, 36 pc favoured the BJP-led combine, while 25 pc favoured Lalu-Nitish-Congress alliance.
On another question as to who is responsible for Bihar's poor condition, a whopping 52 pc held the state government responsible, while 35 pc blamed the Centre.
