Survey methodology

THE post-poll sample survey sponsored by Frontline was based on 779 face-to-face interviews conducted in 40 polling stations of 20 randomly selected Assembly constituencies. All the interviews were conducted between February 26, after the polling was over, and the evening of February 28, the day before the counting began. The sample of 20 Assembly constituencies was drawn randomly using the probability proportionate to size (PPS) procedure and matched with the demographic and past electoral record for its representativeness.

Within each sampled constituency, two locations (polling station areas) were selected randomly and the names of the respondents randomly drawn from the electoral rolls. The respondents included 49 per cent women (actual share 49 per cent), 29 per cent Scheduled Castes (actual share 25 per cent), 93 per cent rural population (actual share 91 per cent).

The survey was designed by a team that included V.B. Singh, Yogendra Yadav and Sanjay Kumar of CSDS. The fieldwork was supervised by Ramesh Kumar Chauhan of Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, Prem Bhardwaj of Government College, Nahan, and T.R. Sharma of Panjab University, Chandigarh. A team of 40 trained investigators drawn from the State carried out the survey. The data were processed by Kanchan Malhotra, Himanshu Bhattacharya, K.A.Q.A. Hilal, Ritu Rao and Bhaskar Jha at the CSDS.