One year in office, Modi rating touches 87%: Pew survey

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Varanasi: Favourability rating of PM Narendra Modi jumped enormously after he brought BJP to power last year, according to a latest Pew survey released on Thursday.

With his policies and governance, Modi not only increased India's respect in the country, his favourability ratings shot up to 87 %. He is being supported even from traditional Congress base; Pew revealed as it released the survey details that it conducted among 2,452 respondents in India from April 6 to May 19, 2015.

"But distrust remains, perhaps in parts because incidents of communal violence were up by nearly a quarter in the first five months of 2015, under BJP rule, compared with a comparable period in 2014 when a Congress-led government was in power," revealed the survey.

Modi's lowest approval on domestic issues comes in his management of communal relations, the day-to-day interaction between majority Hindus and minority Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and Christians among others, as well as the relationship between the various castes in the country.

However, "the Modi phenomenon transcends India's traditionally partisan politics," Pew said in a statement, adding that on most of the challenges facing the nation, the Prime Minister and his party enjoyed support from both the BJP loyalists and followers of the Congress.

Moreover, Modi and the BJP now have greater support than Congress in rural areas and traditionally it was a Congress stronghold, according to the survey.

Roughly six in ten or more self-identified Congress supporters approve of Modi's handling of a range of issues: access to clean toilets (66 %), unemployment (62 %), helping the poor (61 %) and inflation (61 %).

Majority of Congress backers approve of the prime minister's efforts against terrorism (56 %) and corruption (56 %), the survey said.

"Communal relations are the only surveyed issue on which fewer than half of Congress followers (47 %) approve of Modi's efforts," the Pew report said.

Modi also succeeded in winning over rural Indians, both for his party and himself, Pew said.

The party's favourability now exceeds that of Congress in urban areas by 31 points (83 % for BJP, 52 % for Congress) and in rural India by 25 points (89 % for BJP, 64 % for Congress).

"Modi is more popular than presumptive Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi in both rural areas by 23 points (Modi 89 %, Rahul 66 %) and in cities by 31 points (Modi 84 %, Rahul 53 %)," Pew said.

(With inputs from DNA)