As per a Times Now-ORMAX Media Survey on the popularity of political leaders amid Coronavirus crisis, PM Modi has gained the most and Mamata Banerjee’s popularity has touched rock bottom. The Survey was conducted among the people of 6 metropolitan cities concerning the approval of the leadership of the Union government and the Chief Ministers.
The popularity of PM Modi has soared in the last one year, thanks to important decisions like removal of Article 370, Ram Mandir verdict and excellent management of the Coronavirus crisis. In last one year, his approval rating increased from 7.1 to 7.8 on a scale of 10.
Among the chief ministers, the lowest approval rating was for West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. As per the survey, only 6 per cent of the people of Kolkata approved of her management of the Coronavirus crisis. West Bengal government not only under-reported the number of cases in the state but also was in a constant tussle with the central government throughout the crisis instead of cooperation.
The state conducted the lowest number of tests among the big states, and its data on the infected and dead people is not transparent. The whole management of the crisis by a CM with experience of around 9 years was a complete disaster.
West Bengal would go for assembly election in 2021 and given the fact the approval rating of Mamata Banerjee is in single-digit (6%), she is poised to lose unless she pulls out something big in Coronavirus aftermath which seems very unlikely. BJP won 18 seats and around one-third of the popular votes in 2019 general election thanks to the exceptional performance in rural constituencies of the Western part of the state. As Mamata Banerjee loses in Eastern part of the state and urban constituencies like Kolkata from several seats, her defeat in the next assembly election is already written.
The other Chief Ministers who performed poorly in the survey were Uddhav Thackeray and E Palaniswami with 35 per cent and 40 per cent approval rating respectively. Maharashtra alone accounts for more than 20 per cent of the country’s total Coronavirus disease cases while its share in the total population is below 10 per cent. Uddhav has completely failed to implement a strict lockdown in Mumbai where thousands of cases are being reported every day. In many hospitals, patients are being forced to sleep along with dead bodies.
Uddhav Thackeray has no clue on how to manage the situation and now he has appointed Mumbai metro fame Ashwini Bhide as additional commissioner of Mumbai to manage the situation.
In Tamil Nadu, Palaniswami has not been able to control the Tablighi vector which accounts for the majority of the cases in the state. His attempt to loot Temple’s wealth to fill state coffers is also among the reasons behind his low approval ratings. His party, AIADMK, would also face assembly elections in 2021 along with Mamata’s TMC, and given the performance of DMK in 2019 general election, a win is very unlikely, just like Banerjee.
The Chief Ministers of three other Metropolitan cities, that is Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Delhi have an approval rating of around 50 per cent or above. Kejriwal came out as the most popular CM with 65 per cent approval followed by Yediyurappa and KCR with 56 per cent and 49 per cent respectively.