As the 2019 General Elections are around the corner, several opinion polls and surveys are being carried out to know about the first choice of the voters. In an online survey carried out by The Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), 48 per cent respondents voted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leader who would take the ‘agenda of the nation’ ahead. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi got 11% votes whereas Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal occupied the third spot with 9.3% of votes. Meanwhile, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and BSP supremo Mayawati occupied fourth, fifth and sixth spot respectively, with 7 %, 4.2% and 3.1% votes.
57 lakh people from 712 districts voted in the survey that was open for 55 days. The survey conducted by an advocacy group- National Agenda Forum (NAF) – under the mentorship of political strategist Prashant Kishor had nominated 923 leaders for the respondents to choose from.
The survey cements the fact that PM Modi is still the most popular leader among the people of the nation with a mammoth margin. On the other hand, Gandhi scion, despite so much media and social media PR, in terms of popularity he is near to Kejriwal. It shows that his tactic of ‘icchadhaari hindu’ is not at all working and people are abhorring such cheap attempts to appease the majority community for electoral gains. The gap of 400% in terms of popularity and preference between PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi is enough to prove that the nation wants to bring back PM Modi again in power in 2019. Such a huge margin also indicates that lies, misinformation and propaganda sponsored by the Lutyens’ cabal against PM Modi is not at all working. The efforts made by the cabal to malign the image of PM Modi are going in vain, and he continues to remain the most popular political leader.
Responding to the survey, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said “If public doesn’t like Rahul Gandhi, then you won’t say that BJP is forcing them to say so. BJP has been winning elections one after another. This is about PM Modi’s followers. If Rahul Gandhi thinks he is loved, then he must prove it in the forthcoming elections”.
Interestingly, not even a single leader from so-called Mahagathbandhan comes even remotely close to a pan-Indian acceptance. Except in their area of influence, these leaders of Mahagathbandhan are a pariah for the rest of India. Cracks in the proposed Mahagathbandhan are already visible even before its proper formation. In fact, the prime ministerial chair is the major bone of contention between the parties which wanted to fight the elections together against the BJP. From West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to NCP president Sharad Pawar and SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, everyone thinks of him/herself as the best-suited candidate for the PM post. It’s quite obvious that people of the nation would not prefer such leaders who have nothing promising to offer except anti-Modi rants. And that’s why these leaders are also not very popular among the masses, as it is clearly evident in the figures in the survey.
This survey gives us the glimpse of how the political events would unfold in the upcoming days. It would be no exaggeration to predict that PM Modi would comfortably retain the PM Chair. Many other surveys in the days to come would also speak the same and the voters of the nation would prove their prediction right by pressing the Lotus symbol on polling days.