Same old channel, same old research organisation, same old survey and same old predictions. This is the state of the pre-election survey being conducted by popular English television news channel Times Now about the prospective election results in Andhra Pradesh.
Notwithstanding the criticism from various quarters, the Times Now English channel, in association with ETG Research group, dished out the same old figures, predicting that the ruling YSR Congress party headed by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy will make a clean sweep of elections in the state, if they are held now.
According to the survey, the YSRCP will get 24-25 Lok Sabha seats, if the general elections are held in AP now. The TDP may get either one or no seats and all the other parties including Jana Sena will draw a blank.
Of course, the channel-agency combine came out with predictions for the Lok Sabha elections but it gives a fair indication of the assembly elections as well, as they would be held together.
Such predictions might satisfy the ego of the YSRC top bosses, but even their own party leaders do not believe such figures, though they are confident that Jagan will come back to power, even if it is with a reduced margin.
For Telangana, however, the TIMES NOW-ETG Research survey has made some different predictions, apparently based on the latest assembly election results.
According to it, the Congress which has come to power in the state in the assembly elections will repeat more or less the same performance in Lok Sabha elections, too, by winning 8-10 MP seats out of 17 in the state.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi which lost power in the assembly elections and the second runner-up Bharatiya Janata party will get 3-5 seats each and the AIMIM might retain its lone Hyderabad MP seat.