Political Stock Exchange: Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha ready to give Modi another chance

Almost half of the voters in Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand want to give the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government another chance in New Delhi even though they aren’t very happy with its performance in the last four-and-a-half years, India Today’s Political Stock Exchange (PSE) has revealed.

The PSE survey throws another interesting finding which shows how chief minister Nitish Kumar’s popularity has risen from 46 to 48 per cent in just two months while his counterpart in Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, slipped by five per cent. The last PSE, which was conducted in September, placed Patnaik at 59 per cent.

According to the poll, 46 per cent of the respondents in Bihar said the BJP government should get a chance to rule for five more years while 32 per cent said no. In the neighbouring Jharkhand, as high as 49 per cent supported the idea whereas 38 per cent didn’t. In Odisha, 48 per cent gave thumbs up to the BJP government for the next term and 33 per cent backed out.

The poll also shows that prime minister Narendra Modi continues to be the most popular choice for the next PM in all three states, bagging strong support of 60 per cent of voters in Bihar, 59 per cent in Jharkhand and 57 per cent in Odisha. PM Modi’s popularity has risen in all these three states in a range of one to three per cent.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi got 28 per cent votes both in Bihar and Jharkhand, and 23 per cent in Odisha as the next PM choice. The survey shows Rahul’s popularity has dipped by four per cent in Bihar and two per cent in Jharkhand. In Odisha, it has increased by two per cent.

Bihar

Nitish remained the top choice for the next chief minister with 48 per cent supporting him while 25 per cent backed Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Yadav, the PSE survey showed. Interestingly, when asked about Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) forming an alliance with the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, 48 per cent supported the saffron party. When it came to backing the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), merely 12 per cent stood up for the party. Eleven per cent said the JD(U) should fight the general elections alone.

However, people didn’t seem to be very happy with the JD(U) government as 27 per cent of the respondents were completely dissatisfied, 26 per cent somewhat satisfied, 20 per cent completely satisfied and 11 per cent somewhat dissatisfied.

Asked about the performance of the central government in the last four-and-a-half years, 33 per cent of voters were completely dissatisfied, 31 were somewhat satisfied while 22 per cent were completely satisfied, the poll revealed.

For the voters of the state, price rise will be the key issue while voting for the Lok Sabha elections. This is followed by road connectivity in villages, drinking water and unemployment. However, the most important criteria is the government’s performance.

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The India Today-Axis My India poll was based on telephonic interviews across 40 parliamentary constituencies in Bihar, with a sample size of 14,987.

Nitish Kumar took charge as the Bihar CM in 2015 after the mahagathbandhan registered a thumping victory. The alliance won 178 seats and Nitish was sworn-in as the CM for the fifth time in a row. However, in 2017 the alliance broke and a new coalition government was formed between the JD(U) and BJP.

Odisha

The poll showed 54 per cent of the respondents supporting Naveen Patnaik as the preferred choice of chief minister. BJP’s Dharmendra Pradhan stood second at 24 per cent.

As many as 29 per cent of the voters looked somewhat satisfied with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government, 23 per cent completely satisfied, 22 per cent somewhat dissatisfied and 16 per cent completely dissatisfied, the poll revealed.

Twenty-nine per cent voters were completely satisfied with the performance of the central government in the last four-and-a-half years, followed by those who were somewhat satisfied at 26 per cent, completely dissatisfied at 19 per cent and the respondents who were somewhat dissatisfied at 17 per cent.

Drinking water, price rise and road connectivity in villages would be the major issues for respondents voting for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Like Bihar, the government’s performance would be the key criteria while casting votes.

The PSE study is based on telephonic interviews across 21 parliamentary constituencies of Odisha, with a sample size of 8,365.

At present, the ruling BJD has 117 seats followed by the Congress at 16 and BJP at 10 in the 147-member Assembly.

Jharkhand

The performance of the Raghubar Das-led government in the state was quite decent as 24 per cent of the respondents were completely satisfied while only 18 per cent were completely dissatisfied. Twenty per cent of the respondents were somewhat satisfied while 16 per cent were somewhat dissatisfied, the poll showed.

At the same time, Das topped the choice for the next CM with 36 per cent votes. Hemant Soren stood second at 26 per cent and Babulal Marandi bagged the third spot with 16 per cent votes.

According to the PSE survey, 25 per cent of the voters were somewhat dissatisfied with the central government’s performance in the last four-and-a-half years while 13 per cent were completely dissatisfied. Twenty-three per cent were completely satisfied and 21 per cent somewhat satisfied.

Drinking water, unemployment and price rise would emerge as the key issues while voting in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The government’s performance would be the key criteria for casting votes.

The poll is based on telephonic interviews across 14 parliamentary constituencies of Jharkhand, with a sample size of 5,472.

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