Opinion poll shows Congress leading in Punjab

New Delhi, Oct 13  If Punjab goes to polls today, the Congress will emerge as the largest party but will fall short of a majority, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.

The opinion poll by Axis-My-India for India Today group said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be in second place, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) alliance will trail at third position.

The opinion poll gave the Congress 49 to 55 seats, while the AAP got 42 to 46 seats.

The BJP-SAD combine got 17 to 21 seats as per the opinion poll.

On the vote share, the poll said the Congress is likely to get 33 per cent votes, the AAP 30 per cent and the BJP-SAD alliance may get 15 per cent of the votes.

Around 76 per cent of the participants also agreed that the drug menace is a major problem, and 80 per cent blamed politicians for not being able to control it.

The poll also said that around 22 per cent votes that had gone to the BJP-SAD alliance in the past have shifted to the AAP, while 19 per cent votes shifted to the Congress.

The opinion poll surveyed 6,552 people in all 117 constituencies.