New Delhi, Nov 4 After more than 30 years, Gujarat is all set to witness a three-cornered contest in the forthcoming Assembly elections to be held in two phases on December 1 and 5.
This was revealed by an exclusive CVoter-ABP Gujarat Opinion Poll to gauge popular perceptions and voting intent of adult citizens in the state with a sample size of 22,807 spread across all the 182 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat using random sampling techniques.
As per the poll, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has emerged as a formidable force in the state and is projected to gather a vote share of more than 20 per cent in the forthcoming elections.
This makes the Gujarat Assembly elections a three-cornered contest like what was witnessed in Uttar Pradesh during the last three decades before popular support for the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) collapsed in the 2022 Assembly elections.
The last time Gujarat witnessed a similar three-cornered contest was in 1990. In that election, the erstwhile Janata Dal had polled almost 30 per cent the vote share while the Congress' vote share had slumped to 31 per cent.
An ascendant BJP had then polled about 27 per cent of the vote share.
The popular sentiment in Gujarat that is leaning towards a three-cornered contest will inflict maximum damage on the Congress, just as it had done in 1990.
According to the projections made by the opinion poll, the vote share of Congress is expected to crash by 12.5 per cent to 29.1 per cent this time, as compared to the 2017 Assembly elections. In 2017, the Congress had given a close fight to the BJP in a bipolar contest by winning 77 seats in the 182-member state Assembly.
But the change from a bipolar to a three-cornered contest would hurt the Congress as it is projected to win between 31 and 39 seats this time.
Gujarat will go to the polls in two phases on December 1 and 5. The results will be declared, along with that of Himachal Pradesh, on December 8.
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