Bengaluru: In what is being seen as a counter to the Congress- sanctioned pre-poll survey by C-Fore that put the ruling party ahead with 120-132 seats as opposed to the BJP getting only 60-72 seats in 2018 elections, the BJP has hired another poll survey agency Creative Center for Political and Social Studies (COPS) which puts the opposition BJP with 113 seats. This is the exact number of seats the BJP had won when it swept to power in 2008 under the stewardship of former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
COPS has given the ruling Congress-led Siddaramaiah government 86 seats and the JD(S), 25 seats.
COPS conducted the survey in July 2017, at a time when there was unrest in the coastal region triggered by the alleged murder of a RSS worker by political rivals which led to protests and demands by the BJP for a ban on the SDPI and KFD .
The survey states that if a poll were held today, the BJP would get a simple majority.
COPS predicts that the Congress would however win a majority of the seats in the Old Mysuru region, winning 21 of 37 seats and could win 16 of the 32 seats in Bengaluru region, leaving the BJP with 14 and the JD(S) with 2.
COPS has however predicted that the BJP will make a clean sweep in Coastal, Mumbai Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions. Of the 40 seats in HK, it will be 25 seats for BJP; in Mumbai-Karnataka, out of 56 seats, BJP will win 36. However in Central Karnataka, both ruling Congress and BJP could win an equal number of seats.
