In not so good news to the two principal parties - the Congress and the BJP - a survey of the representative sample of Delhi’s electorate shows that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has the largest pool of potential voters. As many as 47 per cent of Delhi residents wish to give the party a chance to form the Government in Delhi as against only 33 per cent for the BJP, and 27 per cent for the Congress.
The survey which took 3,325 respondents in 35 Assembly constituencies has highlighted that the party’s star leader Arvind Kejriwal is way ahead of Chief Minster Sheila Dikshit and BJP Chief Vijay Goel in Chief Ministerial popularity ranking.When asked if the AAP should get a chance to form the government only 31 per cent were against it. While the opposition for the ruling Congress party was highest with 62 per cent, 52 per cent of the respondents were against the idea of giving a chance to the BJP, the principal opposition party.
The survey which was conducted by Cicero Associates, a Delhi-based public opinion and political consultancy firm on behalf of the AAP highlights that if elections were held in the last week of August when this survey was carried out, the BJP would have secured 31 per cent votes, followed by the AAP with 27 per cent and the Congress with 26 per cent.
Interestingly the party which was launched in November 2012 also realises that as of now the conversion of its potential support base of 47 per cent won’t be as easy as it would be for the Congress and the BJP. But the AAP, whose name and election symbol is yet to penetrate the entire population of the Capital, is hopeful that once awareness spreads further, the party has considerable space to convert its supporters’ base into voters.
During the survey 14 per cent voters of Delhi did not recognize the name of the Aam Aadmi Party. One-third could not identify the party’s recently acquired symbol–the broom.
“Given its growth rate, it can convert much more than 27 per cent, a little over half of its potential support of 47 per cent into voters especially once the awareness spreads further in the next two months,” says the party spokesperson Aswathi Muralidharan reacting to the survey.
The biggest strength of Aam Aadmi Party Mr. Kejriwal is way ahead of other contenders in the Chief Ministerial race. When given a choice among three leading contenders, 41 per cent preferred him as the next Chief Minister, followed by 20 per cent for Ms. Dikshit and 14 per cent for the Delhi BJP chief Mr. Goel.
For the sake of public scrutiny and transparency AAP has uploaded the raw data files and questionnaire of this survey on its website. www.aamaadmiparty.org
