A news Panels Politics poll conducted for Maariv shows that MK Eli Yishai of Shas is more popular among voters of the party than current party head MK Aryeh Deri, who in the past served jail time and had to temporarily leave politics for corruption.
According to the survey, Shas led by Deri would get seven mandates in the March 17 elections, whereas if Yishai led the party it would get nine mandates.
If the tensions between the two leads to a split of the party, both of them would be able to make it over the threshold limit into the Knesset running separately on lists of their own factions.
A Shas led by Deri without Yishai's faction would get four mandates, and a new hareidi party headed by Yishai after breaking off from Shas would get five mandates, according to the poll.