In a clear indication of people’s discontentment over mismanagement during devastating second COVID-19 wave, the support for Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister saw a steep fall from 66 per cent last year to 24 per cent now, the ‘Mood of the Nation’ (MOTN) survey conducted by the India Today revealed.
From January to August 2021 alone, Modi’s popularity plummeted by 14 per cent. Earlier this year, 38 per cent of the respondents supported Modi’s prime ministership in the same survey.
In connection, the MOTN revealed that 23 per cent of the voters mentioned COVID-19 pandemic as the most significant problem presently being faced by the country. 49 per cent of those surveyed expressed discontent over Modi’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Price rise/ Inflation followed this, with 19 per cent pressing on the issue. The media house’s survey also said that the same issue has been the NDA-led government’s biggest failure, according to 29 per cent of the respondents.
Yogi Adityanath, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Amit Shah follow the popularity to become PM, in that order.
Yogi, RaGa improve popularity in race to PM
Meanwhile, current Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi climbed up on the popularity ladder in the race to become the Prime Minister.
While Adityanath is the second most popular contender for the post with 11 per cent of the respondents answering in his favour as against 3 per cent last year, Rahul Gandhi is the choice for 10 per cent. He improved his popularity by merely 2 per cent from last year.
But, it is noteworthy that only 29 per cent of respondents in Uttar Pradesh approve Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister. The state goes for elections in about 6 months. He was awarded only the seventh popular chief minister, with Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief MK Stalin bagging the top rank with 42 per cent in favour.
Also, only 38 per cent approved of the Congress’s performance as an Opposition party. The percentage of those against the inclusion of the Gandhi family in the party also decreased to 45 per cent from 52 percent in January.