MUMBAI: A recent survey has found that voters in Maharashtra are likely to give more preference to issues, rather than the performance of their legislators, while exercising their franchise on October 15.

According to the survey conducted by the city-based NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the voters give more importance to the trustworthiness of a candidate, compared to his caste or religion. They are also more concerned about law and order situation in the state, while corruption and inflation are secondary issues.The freebies offered by the candidate came last among the voters’ preferences.

The survey involving 20,000 respondents, which was conducted in all 288 Assembly constituencies , lists the people’s top priorities as law and order situation, waste management, women’s safety, inflation and eradication of corruption.

The objective of the survey was to provide a richer understanding of the ground level issues, the NGO said.

Welcoming the survey findings, Congress leader Harish Rogye said, “It is a good sign that the voters are inclined towards trustworthiness of a candidate.”

BJP leader Ganesh Hake, on the contrary, said the issues of growing inflation and rampant corruption would definitely make an impact on the voters.