Unemployment is emerging as the single most important electoral issue for the people in Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections next week, a survey by NDTV in partnership with Lokniti, a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), has found. Poverty is a close second, while a lack of development, price rise, education, and corruption are among other issues on their mind as they get ready to vote.
While 28 per cent of the respondents said unemployment was the biggest issue for them, 25 per cent said it was poverty, and seven per cent each said lack of development, price rise, and education.
Corruption, which the Congress has made its primary poll plank with the repeated "40 per cent commission" jab, found resonance with just six per cent of the respondents. However, to the pointed question of whether corruption has increased in the last five years (when the BJP has been in power), more than half of the respondents said it has.
51 per cent said corruption has increased, 35 per cent said it has remained the same, while 11 per cent said it has gone down.
Notably, even traditional BJP supporters believe that corruption has increased during the last five years. Among Congress supporters who took the survey, 50 per cent said corruption has increased, 41 per cent of the BJP supporter respondents also said it has gone up, and 73 per cent of the JD(S) supporters interviewed said the same. 57 per cent of the total respondents, across party affiliations, remained non-committal.
On inflation, a majority of them (67 per cent) said prices have gone up, while less than a quarter (23 per cent) said they stayed the same, and a minority (9 per cent) said prices went down. The respondents were specifically asked if the prices increased or decreased in their areas in the last five years.
The survey also found that unemployment is a bigger problem for younger voters, and poverty for those in rural Karnataka.
Among the 28 per cent who said unemployment was the single biggest issue for them, 38 per cent were 18 to 25 years of age. Among the 25 per cent who said poverty was the biggest concern, 30 per cent of them were from the rural part of the state while 19 per cent were from urban areas.
The survey was conducted between April 20 and 28. A total of 2,143 voters, registered in 82 polling booths across randomly selected 21 Assembly segments, were interviewed for the survey. Those conducting the exercise spoke to each of these voters for about 15-20 minutes. Voters from every section and region were part of the survey.
In each polling station, 40 voters were randomly sampled (of which 25 were interviewed) from the electoral roll using the SRS (systematic random sampling) method. The interviews were conducted face-to-face at electors' homes by specially trained field investigators, mostly students from various colleges and universities of Karnataka.
Though the sample is relatively small, the total number of voters interviewed represents the social reality of the voters of Karnataka, i.e. the sample is truly representative of the voters of Karnataka with regard to social composition.
The findings are part of "Public Opinion" -- NDTV's new initiative to gauge public mood and opinion on issues that matter.
Karnataka votes on May 10, with results slated to be declared on May 13.
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