ET poll for 2014 election: NDA is best alliance to run India, say respondents

The Congress-led UPA has been regularly blaming its predecessor – the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which was ousted from power in 2004 – for the economic woes and ruptures in other areas of governance. But voters of UP and Bihar do not seem to be buying into this oft-repeated charge.

Nearly half of the respondents in the survey named the NDA as the best alliance to run the country.

While a third of the respondents in Bihar preferred the UPA, the figure was just 26 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. The Third Front, a grouping that got significant backing from Bihar in the 1990s, seems to have lost traction, with just 8 per cent of the respondents reposing faith in the alternative to the coalitions led by the two national parties. In Uttar Pradesh, the figure was just marginally higher at 11 per cent.

The NDA has found greater support from urban and Hindu voters in the survey. The UPA, on the other hand, has got higher rating from rural voters, Muslims, Other Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes. The comparison between UPA-1 and UPA-II shows that the current coalition has a lower approval rating than its previous avatar.

While 26 per cent respondents in Uttar Pradesh preferred the UPA-1, 18 per cent chose the UPA-II. In Bihar, the difference was greater, with 44 per cent preferring the UPA-1 to 23 per cent for UPA-II. With the BJP concentrating its attack on the track record of UPA-II, the findings point to a serious trouble for the Congress-led alliance.

The survey also underscores the lack of traction for the idea of Third Front.