PM Narendra Modi still topper among the Indian middle class: ET-TNS survey

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi still holds sway over members of his core constituency — the urban salaried, especially those living in India’s seven biggest cities.

The government’s overall approval ratings are still running high almost two years after the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power at the head of a robust majority, according to the findings of an ET-TNS survey. That’s despite getting caught up in various controversies and the failure to make progress on key elements of its reform agenda.

The government has an overall approval rating of 86% on economic performance, while 62% say that it has delivered on job creation and 58% expect the future to be better. In other words, they still believe that ‘achhe din aaney wala hain’.




The government has an overall approval rating of 86% on economic performance, while 62% say that it has delivered on job creation and 58% expect the future to be better. In other words, they still believe that ‘achhe din aaney wala hain’.

Perhaps the finding that reveals the most about those surveyed is their response to questions about the controversy over nationalism and sedition as exemplified by the Jawaharlal Nehru University protests. Half of them (46%) believe that the controversy is the Congress’ fault and more of them (52%) hold the view that the government has taken the right action in the matter.

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It’s important to note that the findings don’t reflect sentiment across the country or among different population segments, particularly during the current election season. It should be read for what it is — a sense of the government’s popularity across a segment that’s seen as being strong supporters of Modi and the BJP.

To that end, our surveyors fanned out across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, covering a sample size of more than 2,000 people between the ages of 24 and 50 with an annual family income between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 20 lakh. About a fifth of those surveyed were women.

One key finding: Modi is vastly more popular than Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. On a scale of one to 10, Modi gets a score of 7.68 against a lowly 3.61 for Gandhi. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley does better than him at 5.86. As much as 41% of those surveyed gave the PM a rating of 9 or 10.