New Delhi, May 20 (IANS): A year after elections in four states and one Union Territory, Narendra Modi remains way ahead of Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as the preferred choice for the Prime Minister's post.
This was revealed during an exclusive survey conducted by CVoter on behalf of IANS in the four states -- Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala -- and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where Assembly elections were held in 2021.
Modi is the top choice for the PM's post in all the states/UT where elections were held last year. However, in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Rahul Gandhi is not far behind Modi as the preferred PM face.
Incidentally, these five states/UT have around 120 Lok Sabha seats and the BJP's strength in Assam, Puducherry and West Bengal is increasing, while the Congress is the alliance partner in Tamil Nadu and in Kerala it's in the opposition.
When asked who do you think is the most suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister, 43 per cent of the respondents in Assam backed Modi, followed by Kejriwal (11.62 per cent) and Rahul Gandhi (10.7 per cent).
In Kerala, from where Rahul Gandhi won the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, 28 per cent of the respondents said Modi was their preferred choice, followed by Rahul Gandhi (20.38 per cent) and Kejiral (8.28 per cent).
Similarly, in Tamil Nadu where the Congress is an alliance partner of the ruling DMK, 29.56 of the respondents backed Modi as their preferred choice for the PM's post, followed closely by Rahul Gandhi (24.65 per cent), while Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee came a distant third at 5.23 per cent.
In West Bengal, Modi led the chart with 42.37 per cent respondents backing him as the Prime Minister, followed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (26.08 per cent) and Rahul Gandhi (14.4 per cent).
In Puducherry, as many as 49.69 of the respondents rooted for Modi, while 11.8 per cent said they preferred other Congress leaders. Rahul Gandhi's acceptance rating was as low as 3.22 per cent.
Taking these five states/UT together, Modi enjoyed an approval rating of 49.91 per cent, followed by Rahul Gandhi (10.1 per cent), Kejriwal (7.62 per cent), other Congress leaders (5.46 per cent) and Banerjee (3.23 per cent).