Candidate, development and party, not caste are Bihar’s key issues, says survey

Opinion poll agency Today’s Chanakya has come up with a survey that says Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more popular than State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the State. The election in the State is widely seen as a contest between the two leaders. The poll said Bihar’s socio-economic conditions will set the tone of campaign, also said caste will not play a major role. The deciding influence on the voting pattern will be the party, its candidate, development and law and order.

The agency used stratified sampling technique to make homogenous subgroups. Data were collected from 6,823 voters.

Fifty-two per cent respondents said the Muslim-Yadav polarisation factor will not play a major role in the outcome; 36 per cent felt it would.

Sixty-six per cent felt former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will not play a major role on the Mahadalit vote bank. Seventy-three per cent said Modi’s image will have a major impact on the polls, while the figure was 67 per cent for Kumar. A mere nine per cent felt Modi had a poor image in the State, while 13 per cent said Kumar did.