The Goodwill Communications Ltd, founded by Fr Jegath Gaspar Raj, said its survey revealed that the DMK front would win 127-139 seats, while the AIADMK alliance is expected to win 81-90 seats. The other parties will get 14-17seats.
Incidentally, a note on the findings of the survey released to the media on Monday said, Goodwill Communications had desisted from election-related research and predictions during 2009 and 2014, “as some of its directors were perceived as being close to the DMK establishment.”
Describing the current pre-poll study as an “impartial and professional” exercise, the note said that the opinion poll conducted in four phases, among 14,150 respondents (but not in all 234 constituencies), found that despite an upswing in favour of the DMK, “its forward march is tentative and vulnerable. The ambitious Third Front project fails one more time in Tamil Nadu.”
The survey was conducted between July 15, 2015 and May 5, 2016. In the first phase, the sample size was 2,500, the second phase had 3,200 respondents, the third had 3,800 people taking the survey, while the final phase between April 10 and May 5 had the highest sample size of 4,650 persons.
‘Women for AIADMK’
This survey too found that women favoured the AIADMK. “But the December floods had turned the tide against the party,” said Fr Raj.
“The floods exposed the shoddy state of governance and sycophancy in full display. Also, PMK has consolidated very well in the north and north western parts of Tamil Nadu. The four cornered contest in these areas will actually favour the DMK,” he said.
Denying that the poll was biased in favour of the DMK front, he said, “I have no hesitation in saying that I have sympathy for DMK and I will vote for them. But, it is an academically conducted research. It deserves to be treated as one,” he said.
Says Karunanidhi’s party will win 127-139 seats, while AIADMK will get about 90 seats
