Who are the preferred leaders to become Chief Minister?

New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) If you are a political scientist expecting any surprises or the sudden emergence of a dark horse on voters' preference for becoming chief minister of their state, they will be disappointed. This was revealed in the final results of the CVoter ABP News opinion poll released on the evening of February 7. The choices reflect what political commentators and pundits have been saying for a while.

In Punjab, it has not been very long since Bhagwant Mann was projected as the chief ministerial candidate by the Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress announced Charanjit Singh Channi as the CM face just recently.

Bhagwant Mann leads the pack with 35.7 per cent of the votes while Channi comes a distant second with 25.9 per cent of the voters. The other contenders are too far behind to be in contention.

In Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat, the former chief minister leads the race and gets 39.4 per cent of the votes as the preferred CM. Current BJP chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami gets 35.5 per cent of the votes, a big jump from the 28.6 per cent he got in January this year.

In Goa, current BJP chief minister Pramod Sawant leads the pack with 30.4 per cent of the votes. He is far ahead of AAP CM candidate Amit Patekar who gets 19.5 per cent. Digambar Kamat of the Congress gets 7.8 per cent. The much hyped entry of TMC has made no impact with its candidate Luizinho Falerio getting 2.7 per cent of the votes.

In the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, current BJP chief minister Yogi Adityanath is far ahead with 43.6 per cent of the votes. In contrast, his main rival for the post of CM Akhilesh Yadav gets 33.7 per cent of the votes. The others are too far behind to matter.

Interestingly, except in Uttarakhand where the fight is neck and neck, the parties whose candidates are the most preferred choice for CM are projected to win the largest number of seats in their states.