New Delhi: Eight years after he was first elected to the post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity ratings continue to soar according to the latest India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation survey, with 65.5 per cent respondents grading his performance as ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’, an increase of 12 percentage points since last August.
However, his popularity seems to have waned in comparison to August 2020 when it was a high 78 per cent.
Modi is best suited to be India’s next PM, say 53 per cent of the survey respondents. His potential challengers are way behind in the race, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at 9 per cent, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at 7 per cent.
Even within the BJP, none of the senior leaders like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh or Nitin Gadkari come anywhere near the PM when it comes to popularity, found the survey.
The 44th edition of the survey — conducted between February and August this year — also noted that 48 per cent Indians believe democracy is in danger in the country, up from 44 per cent in January. At 51 per cent, the number is higher in rural India.
In terms of how Indians perceive the way the Modi government has handled the economy — a majority (67 per cent) of the survey respondents said that their economic status has either deteriorated or remained stagnant since 2014, when the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government first came to power.
While 70 per cent respondents of the survey held in August 2020 regarded the government’s handling of the economy as ‘óutstanding or good’, the number has steadily declined since then — dipping to 51.9 per cent in January this year, and now to 48 per cent. This could be a fallout of the Covid pandemic that resulted in loss of livelihoods and high inflation, as well as the Russia-Ukraine war.
Around 29 per cent respondents — the highest since February 2016 — rated the Modi government’s handling of the economy as ‘poor or very poor’.
In terms of his popularity, Modi is way ahead compared to all his predecessors till date, with 45 per cent respondents rating him as India’s best PM since independence. The BJP’s first PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is a distant second at 17 per cent, followed by the Congress’ Indira Gandhi at 13 per cent and Manmohan Singh at 8 per cent.
India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, is last on the list, with only 5 per cent respondents regarding him the best PM so far.
The Mood of the Nation survey is conducted twice every year and the results are released in January and August. A total 1,22,016 respondents, spread across all Lok Sabha segments across all states, participated in the latest edition.
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Gadkari best performing minister, Shah best suited to succeed Modi
While Modi is way ahead in terms of popularity compared to other senior leaders in his government, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has been rated as the best performing minister, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah is best suited to succeed Modi as PM, according to the survey respondents.
Some 25 per cent respondents voted for Shah as Modi’s successor, closely followed by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (24 per cent), Gadkari (15 per cent) and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (9 per cent).
While 23 per cent respondents rated Gadkari as the best performing minister — a massive rise from 5 per cent in August 2019 — Rajnath Singh is a close second at 20 per cent followed by Shah at 17 per cent.
Adityanath ‘best CM’, Naveen Patnaik ‘most popular’ in home state
Among the chief ministers of India, Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath has been rated as the most popular by the survey respondents for the fifth consecutive time since August 2020. A total of 40 per cent respondents of the latest edition of the survey favour him — a massive jump from 27.1 per cent in January this year.
A distant second to Adityanath is Delhi CM Kejriwal (22 per cent), followed by West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (9 per cent).
Among the most popular CMs in their respective states, Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik continues to hold sway. His rating has improved further — from 71 per cent in January this year to 78 per cent in August, the survey shows. Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma is the second most popular CM in home state with a rating of 63 per cent, followed by Tamil Nadu’s M. K. Stalin at 61 per cent.
A total of 1,19,537 respondents across states were told to rate the most popular CMs based on their perception from a list of the 30 CMs in India.
The survey also found that 60 per cent of the top 10 most popular CMs across India and top 10 most popular in their home states are not from the BJP, this despite the party being in power in 13 states.
Modi-led NDA would get majority if polls were held today
According to the survey results, if parliamentary elections had been conducted on 1 August, the Modi-led NDA would have easily gotten a majority, despite some of its éarlier allies like the Telugu Desam Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal leaving the NDA.
Though its seat share would have dipped as compared to 2019 Lok Sabha election results, the survey found that as on 9 August (before Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) walked out of the NDA), the Modi-led BJP would have still gotten 283 on its own, 23 less than what it got in 2019. The NDA would win 307 seats, 35 more than what is needed for a simple majority of 272. In 2019, the NDA came to power with 352 seats under its belt.
A snap poll conducted on 10 August after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar broke ties with the BJP, however, showed the NDA’s number coming down to 286 from 307 and BJP’s to 275, indicating that the JD(U) walking out did impact the NDA’s popularity. One will, however, have to wait to see how it plays out in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition alliance, however, does not look anywhere close to challenging the NDA if polls were to be held today. Only 42 per cent of the respondents said that an opposition alliance can challenge the Modi-led BJP at the Centre, while 40 per cent said it can’t, and 18 per cent were unsure.
‘38% think BJP govts misuse ED, CBI, IT depts’
There has also been a jump in the number of respondents rating the NDA government’s performance as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. From 5 per cent in August 2020, the number of such respondents increased to 29 per cent in the latest survey.
Around 38 per cent respondents also think BJP governments misuse the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and IT departments more than other departments — an increase from 32 per cent in January this year. Some 32 per cent Indians also think that communal harmony has deteriorated under the Modi government, up from 26 per cent in January.
Around 22 per cent of the respondents hold the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) responsible for deteriorating communal harmony in the country.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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