Former Congress MP Lagadapati Rajagopal is known for his near accurate predictions in the elections and so, his surveys enjoy a lot credibility among the people.
But he never discloses his surveys before the polling day. He releases his survey results only after the polling hours end.
So, when he partly released his survey results on Telangana assembly elections on Tuesday evening, it evoked a lot of suspicion.
Though he said the ongoing elections in Telangana are witnessing a tough fight between the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Maha Kootami, the general impression he has given by saying that independents and BJP are going to bag good number of seats is that the TRS is losing the elections.
What is more, he said the TRS has edge only in Warangal, Nizamabad and Medak, while voters in Khammam, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Adilabad are favourable to Maha Kootami and there would be tough contest in Karimnagar and Mahabubnagar. And if the polling is more than 68.5 per cent, the TRS will lose further.
The question is why Lagadapati disclosed his survey, albeit partly, two days before the polling, which is against his usual style. He could have said the same thing after the polls as well.
And there has been no pressure from the media on him; in fact, many people do not know whether he is in Vijayawada or Hyderabad, as everybody is busy with the last lap of electioneering.
Sources say Lagadapati was compelled to release the survey results only after watching the pre-election survey telecast by popular television channel TV9, which predicted that the TRS would get 94 to 104 seats and the Maha Kootami will end up with 16-20 seats.
Though this survey of TV9 is also unbelievable, it would definitely have an impact on voters.
In such close contests, even if one per cent swing in voters’ thinking will make a huge difference in the prospects of the voters.
And since TV9 is a very popular channel, there is a possibility of at least some sections of people getting influenced by its survey.
“So, the Congress-TDP combine brought pressure on Lagadapati to release his survey in favour of Maha Kootami. Since his surveys enjoy a lot of credibility, he carefully disclosed the results instead of giving a sweeping result in favour of the Maha Kootami. But he has created an impression that the TRS is losing,” an analyst said.