India Today’s Mood of the Nation survey revealed that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored high on popularity, the country’s population didn’t feel the same about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministers. The MOTN poll also showed that prices and jobs are major concerns.
With less than a month remaining for the crucial elections to five state Assemblies, PM Narendra Modi remains the most popular leader in the country. This is despite the misery and scars of two waves of a pandemic, an economy in a shambles, a dangerous border confrontation with China, and the one-year-four-month protest by India’s largest demographic entity — farmers.
The rating from the 2022 edition of the India Today-CVoter biannual Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll is news the BJP can use.
With 58% of respondents in the MOTN survey being very satisfied/satisfied with the performance of the Modi government and close to 63% rating his personal performance as outstanding/good, the BJP can enjoy the feeling of a warm glow in Delhi’s prevailing winter chill, especially because in August 2021, the PM had received a ‘good’ performance rating from only 54%.
However, the current 63% mark is still some distance from the phenomenal 78% approval that the prime minister had garnered in August 2020, at the peak of the first wave of Covid.
There is no one close to Modi. His closest national rival in rating for the ‘Best Suited To Be The Next Prime Minister of India’ contest is Congress ex-President Rahul Gandhi, who is 46% behind him.
The improved ratings for the NDA government — from only 53% in August 2021 saying they were satisfied with the performance — can be attributed to the huge Covid vaccination drive that crossed over 1.64 billion doses on January 18, with more than 70% of India’s 940 million adult population now fully vaccinated.
