In what appears to be a major shot in the arm for the ruling Modi government, it has received a major thumbs up in a mega ‘pulse of the nation’ online poll conducted by the Times group. The Modi government has completed four years in office and the country is set to go into elections next year. More than two-third, 71.9 per cent to be precised, of respondents who took the poll stated that they will vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi if elections were to be held today.
71.9% of Indians say they will vote for Narendra Modi as PM again in 2019… #SaafNiyatSahiVikas https://t.co/MPE5KNoRHb
— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) May 26, 2018
This comes on the heels of a Times Now poll conducted in collaboration with Chrome Data Analytics and Media which has predicted that the BJP will perform even better in 2019 compared to 2014. The poll concluded that the BJP will improve its tally of 282 seats in 2014 and will secure 318 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. This was taken as a major manifestation of significant public support for the sitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, the mega poll conducted by the Times group has provided even better prospects for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With 73.3 per cent of the respondents opining that a Modi-led government is the most likely possibility when the elections are ahead, it is clear that Prime Minister Modi is way ahead of his unworthy competitors. While Prime Minister Modi obviously emerged as the most popular choice among the respondents, almost 16 per cent of the respondents said that they would prefer electing a candidate other than Prime Minister Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. As usual, Rahul Gandhi remains the least favored choice with merely 11.93 per cent of the respondents stating that they would vote for the Congress President.
The poll has shattered certain myths about the Modi government such as rampant unemployment, a sense of fear among minorities, etc. In fact, close to half of the respondents believe that the performance of the Modi government has been ‘very good’ while 20.6 per cent have rated it as ‘good’. Coming to the successes of the Modi government, the implementation of the GST has been rated as the biggest success of the present government totally in contravention to the negative propaganda against the taxation reform. A total of 33.4 per cent rated implementation of the GST as the biggest success for the Modi government. It is followed by demonetization with 21.9 per cent, surgical strikes on Pakistan with 19.89 per cent and Jan Dhan Yojana with 9.7 per cent of the total votes. The employment generation seems to be a little problem in what is otherwise a brilliant feedback for the government’s track record. 28.3 per cent of respondents said that it was the biggest problem for Modi government. However, even in this area there is considerable public support for the government. More than 58 per cent of the respondents were either satisfied or felt that the government’s efforts to reduce unemployment are very good.
Coming onto the desperate political attempts to create an illusion that Modi government is anti-minorities, it seems that the general public does not take this narrative seriously. Almost, 60 per cent of the respondents believe that the minorities do not feel any kind of insecurity under the Modi government and merely 30 per cent saying that the minorities are in fear. Prime minister Modi’s proactive foreign policy seems to have impressed an overwhelming majority of the respondents. Eighty per cent of the respondents feel that his policy has been ‘very good’ or ‘good’. Out of this, bulk of the respondents, 62.63 per cent, are of the opinion that prime minister’s foreign policy has been ‘very good’.
This poll has also made it clear that a grand anti-BJP alliance is not going to have much of an impact. Merely, 28.96 per cent of the respondents agreed that the anti-BJP alliance will be effective against the BJP in 2019 polls. Whereas, over 57 per cent of the respondents were of the view that such an alliance will not affect the BJP in any way.
Every finding of this mega poll seems to be completely in favor of the BJP. It is therefore, seems clear that in all probability 2019 will be a cakewalk for the BJP, even if the opposition manages to cobble an alliance against the BJP. Prime minister Modi enjoys unmatched support among the general public, which seems to have only risen after 2014. The poll has been conducted in 9 languages across 9 media properties of the Times group and a total of 8,44,646 respondents were covered by the humongous poll. Given the methodology and the size of the poll, it must be taken to be giving an accurate assessment of the national mood. It seems that the Modi government is going to retain power in 2019 with a historic mandate.
