Chhattisgarh Elections 2023 prediction: The Bharatiya Janata Party will need a miracle to return to power in Chhattisgarh with the Congress comfortably placed to retain power in the state, a new survey has found.

According to the ABP-Cvoter opinion poll for Chhattisgarh, the Congress is projected to win 48-54 seats with a vote share of 45.6 per cent while the BJP may finish short of a majority with 35 to 41 seats with a 41.1 per cent vote share. In the elections held in 2018, the Congress bagged a staggering 68 seats, bringing to an end the 15-year rule of the BJP.

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In the 2018 polls, the Congress had secured 43.1 per cent vote share while the BJP’s vote share stood at 33 per cent. The vote share projected for the Congress and BJP in the survey suggest an uptick of 2.5 per cent and 8.1 per cent for the Congress and BJP, respectively.

In terms of seats, the Congress may finish on the top but with a heavily reduced margin. The BJP, on the other hand, is looking at big gains from its tally of 15 seats in the 2018 elections, but still falling short of the magic figure of 46.

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The survey’s findings also suggest a second straight term as Chief Minister for incumbent Bhupesh Baghel who appears to be far ahead in the race against former Chief Minister Raman Singh. Baghel emerged as the most favored candidate for the top post, securing a significant lead of more than 25 percentage points over his BJP counterpart.

While 48 per cent of the participants saw Baghel as the best choice as CM, only 25 per cent backed Singh, the former three-time chief minister. Deputy CM TS Singh Deo, who was led in an intense power struggle with Baghel over the post of Chief Minister, came in third with the support of just 19 per cent of the respondents.

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In terms of performance, as many as 46 per cent of the respondents said they were “very much satisfied” with his work, 31 per cent said that they were “satisfied to some extent” while 19 per cent said they were “not at all satisfied” with CM Baghel’s performance.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has already released its first list of candidates for the elections. Polls to the Chhattisgarh Assembly are scheduled to be held around November-December. The Election Commission of India is yet to announce the schedule for polls to the five states where elections are due this year. Besides Chhattisgarh, the states going to polls this year include Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram.