India Today-Karvy poll predicts Narendra Modi's popularity remains untouched but NDA seat share may dip to 258

A survey result claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity remained intact since he assumed office as he received a whopping 53 percent people’s backing as the next prime minister. According to the India Today-Karvy Insights opinion poll Modi’s closest competition for the post of India’s prime minister was Rahul Gandhi at a distant 22 percent. Modi has also been polled the best prime minister since Independence. According to this year’s survey, 28 percent of those polled think Modi is the best prime minister in Independent India, while 20 percent think Indira Gandhi’s reign remains unmatched. In 2017, Modi was ahead of Indira with 16 percentage points, while in 2016 he trailed at the second position, in the survey conducted by the same agency. Forty-one percent people rated Modi’s performance good, while 25 percent thought he performed average. [caption id=“attachment_4253565” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reuters and AP[/caption] Moreover, if Lok Sabha elections were held today, the National Democratic Alliance will win 258 of 543 seats, 24 seats down from 282 it had won in 2014, the India Today-Karvy survey predicted. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance is expected to make a considerable improvement in its tally, with 202 seats. Even though Modi’s personal charisma remained unscathed, interestingly, NDA’s seat share has taken a considerable hit since last year. India Today-Karvy’s 2017 survey results had predicted  349 seats for the ruling coalition. In terms of vote share, the survey reported, that the Congress may have something to cheer about even as it may sit in Opposition. UPA is expected to win a vote share of 38 percent, merely two percentage points behind the NDA, which is expected to bag 40 percent votes. Another interesting metric that came forward from the survey was that even in 2018, 44 percent people believed that Ram Mandir in Ayodhya would be a major political issue in the 2019 general election, while 38 percent thought it was a non-issue. Meanwhile, another survey agency, C-Voter also found that Modi thoroughly beat Rahul in race for prime minister’s post. According to this survey, 66 percent of the respondents preferred Modi as prime minister, while just 28 percent of respondents chose Rahul to lead the country. In 2017, 69 percent of those surveyed picked Modi over the Gandhi scion, who was chosen by only 26 percent of respondents. According to C-Voter survey, the saffron party is expected to win 279 seats this time as opposed to the 282 in previous elections. In terms of vote share, while the NDA will register a 1.7 percent rise, UPA’s share will go up by 4.1 percent. While none of these surveys are close to the scale of actual general elections, but given the rigorous survey procedures involved, if the election results indeed coincide with the survey predictions, they would hint that the people have not yet lost faith in brand Modi.