NEW DELHI, 7 March 2004 — Sixty percent of Indians believe Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, head of the ruling alliance, merits a second term, according to a poll published yesterday, six weeks before elections open.
Sonia Gandhi, Italian-born leader of the main opposition Congress party, was seen as prime ministerial material by just 20 percent in the survey commissioned by The Times of India newspaper.
The survey, which polled 2,113 people in India’s 10 biggest cities, said 57 percent favored Vajpayee’s Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition over 27 percent for the secular Congress.
The BJP called general elections several months early to capitalize on a booming economy as well as peace moves with longtime foe Pakistan.
It has been running a high-profile media campaign under the slogan “India Shining” for the elections to be held in four phases from April 20 to May 10.
Yesterday’s survey was the latest in a series suggesting a strong win by the BJP-led coalition.
On Friday, the weekly Outlook magazine reported that the BJP alliance would win 285 seats, 13 more than it needs to form a majority government in the 545-member lower house of Parliament.
The Outlook survey forecast the BJP would gain 13 more seats for a total of 195, its best showing ever, but the share of its 20 coalition partners would drop by eight to 90.
In the 1999 election, the BJP won 182 seats while its allies grabbed 98 seats for a total of 280.
Congress was seen plunging to a record low of 103 seats from 114 in 1999, although its allies were likely to boost their tally by 21 to about 61 seats.
The Outlook survey canvassed 12,249 voters from 612 villages and 306 towns.
Congress, which ruled India for 45 years since the country’s independence in 1947 from Britain, is in a crisis with Gandhi’s foreign origins seen by analysts as a key stumbling block.
Over 33 percent of The Times survey respondents felt India had progressed a lot over the past 10 years, marked by an economic liberalization drive, while 48 percent said there was some progress.
Meanwhile, an internal BJP survey suggested the party faced a serious fight in pivotal northern Uttar Pradesh state which sends 80 MPs to Parliament.
It projected just 30 seats for the BJP and 35 for the ruling regional Samajwadi party and its ally, the RLD, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Both the BJP and Congress are struggling to strike alliances with regional parties in Uttar Pradesh as whichever party wins the state usually forms the national government.
