Three flights up in Jaipur’s City Towers, the office of the Centre for Media Studies and Public Opinion is buzzing with activity as employees pour over data to assess the fortune of politicians in Rajasthan’s upcoming Assembly elections.Flooded with requests from jittery MLAs, unsure politicians and even the odd businessman weighing his options, Mahender Sharma and his team are working round the clock to meet the increasing demand for individual opinion polls commissioned by politicians. Even as Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot gloats over the results of a recent poll that declared him ‘CM number one’, more than 25 ministers have asked Sharma to give them feedback about their chances. BJP trashes ‘survey’ JALANDHAR: The Punjab BJP disagrees with the recent magazine survey that adjudged Captn Amarinder Singh as the second most popular Chief Minister after Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot. The party said the survey was ‘‘totally manipulated’’ and pointed out that the same agency had earlier forecast the Congress winning 90 seats on the eve of the previous Assembly elections in Punjab and had been proved wrong. (Agencies) ‘‘A number of ministers, MLAs and politicians from the Congress and the BJP have commissioned surveys,’’ says Sharma. ‘‘But our impression is that unemployment is going to be the giant killer this time, with caste reservations a close second,’’ says Sharma, reaffirming that while Gehlot has a good public image, his MLAs are on shaky ground. The assessment comes from 40,000 samples the company has collected from 60 constituencies after quizzing respondents.Leading the list are Congress ministers and MLAs. The sudden rush to figure out where they stand comes in the wake of Congress observers touring the state and briefing party chief Sonia Gandhi about negative feedback against sitting MLAs. Observers were greeted with public demands for the ousters of ministers and legislators at Congress rallies. Their report suggested the party would lose at least 24 of the 154 seats it won last time.Discontentment was particularly high against sitting MLAs, prompting some of them to ‘‘reassess ground reality’’ through surveys. The Congress dismisses this scurry as ‘‘nothing more than a trend’’. Congress state general secretary Ashq Ali Tak says: ‘‘It’s a new thing and if one person is doing it then everyone wants to follow suit. But the results will mean nothing since a negative trend is not going to imply that the politician is not going to contest. The feedback will be useful but not paramount.’’In the BJP camp, the surveys are also on but the focus is on how many the ruling party is getting done. ‘‘The Congress is a depressed house and hence so many polls,’’ says C. Singhvi, BJP political advisor in the state. ‘‘We are more dependent on our cadre network for ground realities and the Congress leaders don’t have any, forcing them to go outside.’’Bickering aside, opinion polls are sweeping through Rajasthan as the two parties wait for dust to settle after the reservation ruckus. While BJP state president Vasundhara Raje took a dip at the Nashik Kumbh, Gehlot debated the merits of transfers with his MLAs in Udaipur and Jodhpur. He was told in Udaipur that if elections were to be won, then transfers would have to be done. Especially keeping in view that unhappy government employees are are now marching on foot to Delhi to express their unhappiness to Sonia Gandhi.
