New York Times, New Delhi :
Two months before the general elections, a new US poll suggests that the ruling party Congress may suffer one of their worst defeats in the country’s 67-year history.
Seventy per cent of Indians say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in India today, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. And 63 per cent of those polled said they would prefer that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party lead the next government, compared with just 19 per cent who picked the governing Congress party led by Sonia Gandhi.
“This poll affirms what most of us suspected,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor in chief of Indian Express. “But what it doesn’t tell us is who will lead the next government.”
The pollsters interviewed 2,464 randomly selected adults at their homes between December 7 and January 12 in states and territories that are home to roughly 91 per cent of the Indian population. The poll has a margin of sampling error of four percentage points.
Perhaps the most important finding was the popularity of Narendra Modi, the official prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Pew found that 78 per cent of those polled had a favorable view of Modi, with just 16 per cent holding an unfavorable view.
Modi, who is currently the chief minister of Gujarat, is considered by many to be the most controversial national political figure in India’s history. He led the state during the 2002 riots which cost the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. He has been linked with a secret police assassination squad and with surveillance efforts concerning a woman he admired.
But Modi has softened his image in recent months, and the Bharatiya Janata Party has undertaken an outreach to Muslims, who make up about 14 per cent of the India’s population.
