BENGALURU: Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets foot on the state for an intensive campaign, the third round of the pre-poll survey conducted by the C Fore between April 20 to April 30, spells disappointing news for the BJP, with the agency projecting a majority for the ruling Congress with 118 to 128 seats in Assembly polls scheduled for May 12.Pollsters have predicted a hung assembly but C fore on Monday foretold an absolute and clear majority for the ruling Congress.

As per the C fore survey, BJP will get 63 to 73 seats, with JD(S) coming in third with 29 to 36 seats.

The survey data states that the poll prediction exercise was carried out in 61 of the 224 assembly segments, with 6,247 voters being interviewed. C fore says the survey is said to have an error margin of 2 percentage points and 95% confidence level.

Except for central Karnataka districts of Davanagere, Shivamogga and Chitradurga, all other divisions including Bombay-Karnataka, Hyderabad-Karnataka, coastal Karnataka and Old Mysuru region are supposed to favour Congress.

C fore conducted the pre-poll survey in Karnataka based on Systematic random sampling methodology to select respondents for the survey. Care was taken to ensure that different castes and communities were represented in the sample in their actual proportion , C fore said in a release.

 

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New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".

In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."

"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."

"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.

The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.

According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.

The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.

New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.

Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.

The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.

In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".

"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.