BJP government’s approval ratings sink as elections begin in India

The net approval rating of the Narendra Modi government has dropped 12 points between March 12 and April 12, according to the CVOTER-IANS tracker.

The performance rating of the Central government had peaked in the days after the Balakot air strike on February 26, touching the highest level of 62.06 on March 7.

After remaining in the 50s till March 22, the approval ratings have come down to 43.25 on April 12, a day after the first phase of polls held for 91 Lok Sabha seats.

Exactly a month ago on March 12, the approval rating of the government was 55.28.

The tracker findings are based on survey of people who were asked if they are “very satisfied”, “satisfied to some extent”, “not satisfied” and “Dont’ know/can’t say” about the performance of the Central government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On March 7, 51.32 per cent of the respondents had said they were very satisfied with the performance of the government. However, the net approval rating, taking into account all the responses, has been in constant decline and is settling into the pre-Pulwama levels.

The government’s net approval rating was 32.4 on January 1 and remained between 30 and 40 for the entire month before rising steadily after the mid-February when the Pulwama attack took place which was followed by air strike against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp in Balakot resulting in sharp rise. Around half of the voters surveyed by CVOTER-IANS continue to be very satisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The poll tracker interviewed 12,050 voters on April 4 and found that 50.95 per cent of them said they were very satisfied with the performance of the Prime Minister while another 22.49 per cent said they were satisfied to some extent. There were 25.29 per cent voters who said they were not happy with him at all.

The satisfaction level with the Prime Minister remained high mostly after the air strikes on the terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot whose momentum on the voters has sustained despite a slight dip. The latest findings of the tracker poll has come just three days ahead of the first phase of polling on April 11.

The Prime Minister had the best approval rating of over 55 per cent on March 6, 7 and 8. But the sample size on those days was half of what it was on April 4. There has also been a marginal rise in those who are not at all satisfied with the Prime Minister from around 20 per cent in the first week to March to around 25 per cent in the first week of April. (IANS)