News18’s Mega Opinion Poll: How Survey Was Conducted Across 21 States, 518 Lok Sabha Constituencies – News18

News18 Network on Wednesday unveiled the results of its Mega Opinion Poll, featuring an extensive survey covering 518 Lok Sabha constituencies across 21 major states.

The poll, which will also air on March 14, features a massive sample size of over 1,18,616 respondents, representing 95 per cent of Lok Sabha constituencies and making it one of the largest surveys in the country.

The survey, which went live at 6pm on March 13, will provide valuable insights into the political landscape of India, offering a detailed analysis of voter sentiment and preferences ahead of the upcoming general elections.

The poll findings will also be projected as a vote and seat share for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with individual projections for all major states and for regions within states.

THE METHODOLOGY

The survey was conducted across 21 major states of India, covering 518 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. In each constituency, 210 interviews were conducted among eligible voters. In total, 1,08,780 voters were polled across 21 states. The interviews were conducted using a questionnaire that was translated into 11 regional languages.

In each constituency, three Assembly segments were covered and in each segment, five polling booths were selected via random sampling. The computer-aided personal interviews were conducted in person at home of eligible voters selected via random sampling.

The respondents were selected systematically following the right-hand rule and only one eligible respondent per household was interviewed.

The fieldwork was carried out by trained investigators belonging to various field work agencies. Each agency was given 2-3 states to cover and a total of 10 such agencies were used for the survey.

The field work was carried out between February 12 and March 1, 2024. Before going into the field, the teams were briefed in detail about the sampling plan, respondent’s selection, questions to be asked, comprehension issues, etc. Multiple sessions of briefing were done so that no doubts or confusion are there at the time of field work.

The senior field manager and executives travelled into the field to do on-spot quality checks. Every interview was geo-tagged and each completed interview was checked for duration, time of interview, data consistency, etc. Telephonic back checks were done for 20% of the sample in each state.