Odishatv Bureau
Bhubaneswar: There may not be any major shifts in voting intentions in Odisha as the BJD seems to be the preferred choice for a majority of voters in Odisha. Both chief minister Naveen Patnaik and the Biju Janata Dal seem to be sailing through smoothly if the present trend continues. According to the OTV-Nielsen Opinion Poll 2013, 58% respondents intend to vote for the BJD if elections are to be held to the State Assembly tomorrow. The voting intentions for Congress, BJP and others remain at 15%, 8% and 2% respectively. Interestingly, 17% respondents are still undecided on their voting intentions.
 
Similarly, 54% respondents intend to vote for BJD if Lok Sabha elections are to be held tomorrow.
 
The awareness of Odisha Jana Morcha formed by Pyari Mohan Mohapatra is 85% at an overall level. The awareness is higher in coastal and north zone. Even though awareness of the Odisha Jana Morcha is high, the voting intention for it remains low. Only 2% respondents are intending to vote for the OJM.
 
Apart from chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Dr Damodar Rout (16%) is the most popular BJD leader. His popularity is more in urban areas (23%) of Odisha and in the coastal (22%) and north zone (24%). The other BJD leaders in the pecking order as per the opinion poll are Prasanna Patsani (13%), Prasanna Acharya (6%), AU Singhdeo (4%), Prafula Ghadei (3%).
 
Of the total male respondents, 58% intend to vote for the BJD and of the total women respondents, 59% intend to vote for the BJD. Similarly, more people in rural areas (59%) intend to vote for the BJD than in urban areas (50%).
 
In terms of region, 63% respondents in coastal Odisha, 52% in southern Odisha, 60% in northern Odisha and 53% in western Odisha have shown their intentions to vote for the BJD.
 
The three most important reasons that will influence the voting intentions: Rural development (33%), justice to poor (21%) and employment opportunities to all (20%). Rural development will influence the voting intention of 44% urban respondents and 44% respondents in the North Zone.
 
According to the OTV-Nielsen Poll, 69% respondents rate chief minister Naveen Patnaik as the best suitable leader to become the next chief minister of Odisha. While 9% respondents favour Niranjan Patnaik to become the next CM, former BJP state president Jual Oram has received support from 4% respondents.
 
As per the Opinion Poll, the three biggest achievements of Naveen Patnaik’s government are: Providing rice@2/kg (35%), improvement of roads (23%) and availability of clean drinking water (18%).The three biggest failures of Naveen Patnaik’s Government are: Corruption (28%), increased unemployment (15%) and Maoist/Naxalite problem (14%).
 
As per the opinion poll, some areas improved, some deteriorated and some remained the same over the last four years. Transport facility (72%) and availability of drinking water (67%) are the areas which witnessed improvement in last four years. Maoist/Naxalite problem (39%) and corruption (34%) are the areas which deteriorated in last four years. According to the poll, government administration (54%) and corruption (48%) are areas which have remained the same in last four years.
 
Asked whether the state Opposition parties have not been effective in highlighting the failures of the state government, almost majority (49%) of the respondents said that the Opposition has been ineffective in highlighting the failures of the state government.
 
OTV commissioned Nielsen, a leading market research agency, to conduct fieldwork for this opinion poll from a sample size of 4196, covering as many as 42 Assembly constituencies in Odisha covering 2954 male respondents and 1251 female respondents. Among the 4196 respondents, 3663 were from rural areas while 491 were from urban areas.
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