Fact Check: NIA survey claiming declining support for BJP, growing opposition from youth fake

Viral image lists several key findings from the 'survey', like diminishing appeal of Ram Mandir issue & support for Modi. Official in NIA says agency doesn't conduct any political surveys.

Viral social media posts have falsely claimed that intelligence agencies like the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted surveys indicating a decline in support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BOOM spoke to an official government source who informed that the NIA does not engage in conducting political surveys whatsoever.

The claim was also posted by a member of the Indian National Congress. The claim lists out several key findings from these surveys, including reduced support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image, diminishing appeal of the Ram Mandir issue, and growing opposition from youth and women, among other points.

Here’s the archived link to the post.

Several Facebook accounts pushed out the same claim.

Find the archived links here, here and here.

Fact check

BOOM reached out to a source in the Union government who confirmed that NIA is not responsible for conducting or releasing political surveys. “NIA does not conduct any political survey,” the official told BOOM, requesting anonymity.

At present, NIA functions as the main counter-terrorism law enforcement agency in India. It is primarily responsible for investigating and prosecuting offenses related to terrorism and other national security related investigations. Conducting political surveys for political parties falls outside the mandate or jurisdiction of the investigation agency.

Generally, private players provide services for different parties by providing on-the-ground insights to political leaders. For instance, the BJP had hired two external poll consultancy agencies, one based in Chennai and another in Delhi, last year, to conduct a comprehensive survey of all Lok Sabha constituencies nationwide, according to a news report by The Telegraph.

While political leaders downplayed the survey as a routine part of the preparations for the general elections, they also said that seat sharing with allies would be decided after the results were revealed.

Additionally, earlier this year, the BJP initiated the ‘Jan Man’ online survey on the NaMo app, aiming to gauge the views of Indian citizens and assess the performance of the ruling party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April 2024. The survey includes questions about the governance of the ruling party, its leadership, and people’s opinion on the performance of their local Members of Parliament (MPs).

This story was originally published by Boom Live as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint.