New Delhi, May 18: A large number of people feel that they are worse off at the end of the first year of the second United Progressive Alliance government, an NDTV opinion poll said.
The poll, which surveyed 34,277 persons around the country, said 44 per cent of the respondents felt that they were worse off, while 35 per cent said they were better off in the second tenure of the UPA.
This feeling of disappointment was spread across both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party voters — which listed 41 per cent and 49 per cent.
However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has a high approval rating of 70 per cent of respondents, who said they were satisfied with his performance.
At the same time, 63 per cent of respondents consider Congress president Sonia Gandhi more powerful than Prime Minister Singh.
A question was also asked on who would make a better Prime Minister— Rahul Gandhi or Manmohan Singh. Forty six per cent voted in favour of the younger leader. Similarly, 55 per cent said the next Prime Minister was likely to be Mr. Gandhi.
In the Cabinet, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P. Chidambaram had high approval ratings of 59 per cent and 61 per cent.
Significantly, 62 per cent said they were very much affected by the inflation.
An overwhelming 77 per cent were in favour of reservation of one-third of seats in Parliament for women, with most of them feeling that women make better leaders.
Though politicians continue to be the most pilloried, with respondents of the opinion poll saying that 90 per cent of politicians are corrupt, 88 per cent also felt the police force was corrupt.
—-IANS