New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Despite supporting the ongoing farmers’ agitation in the country, the image of former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has not come up to the mark to pose a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose approval rating and popularity remain intact despite the odds of the Covid-19 pandemic and the farmers’ stir, as per the IANS C-Voter State of the Nation 2021 survey.
As per the survey, Rahul Gandhi is most popular in Kerala from where he has been elected to the Lok Sabha, and least popular in Uttarakhand where incumbent Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has been ranked lowest among the Chief Ministers.
The approval rating for Rahul Gandhi in Kerala is 43 per cent, followed by Tamil Nadu (25 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (15 per cent).
The all-India rating of the opposition leader is a dismal minus 5.07 per cent, with only 18.73 per cent of the respondents saying they are very much satisfied with his performance, 20 per cent saying they are satisfied, and as high as 44.08 per cent saying they are not satisfied at all.
The situation is not much different in the Union Territories where Rahul Gandhi enjoys an approval rating of 5 per cent, with 35 per cent respondents saying they are not satisfied with the work of Rahul Gandhi.
In the Congress-ruled state of Chhattisgarh, where Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is better placed than the former Congress chief, 51 per cent of the people are not at all satisfied with the performance of Rahul Gandhi.
In poll-bound West Bengal, where the Congress is in alliance with the Left parties, the approval rating of Rahul Gandhi is minus 7.09 per cent, with around 45 per cent of the people saying they are not satisfied with Rahul Gandhi’s works, 14 per cent saying they are very much satisfied, and 23 per cent saying they are satisfied to some extent.
In Uttarakhand, the approval rating of the Congress leader is minus 41 per cent, followed by the northeastern states (minus 38 per cent) and Delhi (minus 23 per cent).
The situation is not much different in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, where Rahul Gandhi has an approval rating of minus 21 per cent with 54 per cent of the people saying they are unhappy with him.
Despite backing the farmers’ stir, the Congress leader’s approval rating in Punjab and Haryana, the two states leading the ongoing protests, is dismal at minus 18 per cent and minus 17 per cent, respectively.
His approval rating in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, though is minus 1.59 per cent and in minus 1.91 per cent.
The survey was carried out among over 30,000 respondents across the country.
