Even Congress workers like Chouhan in MP: Election Tracker

There’s a good reason why Shivraj Singh Chouhan is said to be the closest rival to his Gujarati counterpart in the party. On the cusp of a potential third term as Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh, he even has traditional Congress supporters backing him in the state with many believing he’s better prime ministerial material than Narendra Modi.

The Congress, including former chief minister Digvijaya Singh may be preparing for a battle in the state polls, but as the CNN-IBN and Hindu poll indicates they may not be anywhere close to dislodging Chouhan from the chief minister’s chair.

The survey conducted by CSDS found that if elections were conducted today, the BJP would stand to get around 50 percent of the vote share, way above the 32 percent percent that the Congress stands to get.

What will hearten the Madhya Pradesh chief minister is that pretty much the entire state believes that his government has done better than his predecessor Digvijaya Singh. And this includes even a majority of traditional Congress supporters. Whether it is a result of factionalism within the Congress isn’t known.

Only 21 percent of Congress supporters among those polled thought that the Congress chief minister had done better.

And the survey also gives a peep into why many believe that Chouhan remains the only other alternative among the state leaders to Narendra Modi. Out of the 1,439 respondents polled, 49 percent of the respondents felt he was a better choice to be the Prime Minister as compared to Modi. Only 29 percent thought the Gujarat chief minister was better.