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If Mrs Gandhi and Mr Karunanidhi had contested the by-elections at Thanjavur, what would have been the result? To get a tentative answer to this question a group of students of the Department of Statistics of the Madras Christian College interviewed more than four hundred voters drawn from fifty villages and towns of the Thanjavur Parliamentary Constituency.

Fifty-two percent of the voters said that they would have voted for Mrs Gandhi if she had contested from Thanjavur. In contrast to this, forty percent said that they would have voted for Mr Karunanidhi. The rest of the voters had not made up their minds. Mrs Gandhi had good support in four of the six assembly constituencies which constitute Thanjavur Parliamentary constituency. More people supported Mr Karunanidhi than Mrs Gandhi in Thanjavur and Orathanad assembly constituencies.

What is the relative popularity of the different political leaders in the Thanjavur Parliamentary Constituency? Mr Karunanidhi is the most popular leader with a strong support of thirty three percent of the people. Mrs Gandhi comes next with twenty-eight percent and Mr M. G. Ramachandran with twenty-four percent. Mr Morarji Desai has a strong support of only six percent. About one-tenth of the voters either have no strong opinion or do not wish to reveal their position.

With the electoral alliances of the major parties taking part in the Thanjavur by-election what is the relative strength of the candidates? Fifty-five percent of the voters said that they would definitely vote for Mr Singaravadivelu. About forty percent said that they would definitely vote for Mr Anbil Dharmalingam. Only one percent was for the independent candidates. Others either had not made up their minds or were unwilling to reveal their intentions. Mr Singaravadivelu has greater support than Mr Dharmalingam in the assembly constituencies of Papanasam, Thiruvaiyaru, Thiruvonam and Valangaiman.

The survey was conducted for a week from June 4 to June 10 covering all the six assembly constituencies. The students, D.Sundar, V. M. Gopinath, V. Veerabadran, undertook the survey as part of their practical training in Statistics.