India Today-Org poll has some surprising findings - & some bad news for both main parties
An India Today-Org mood of the nation poll makes unsettling reading.
But this provides small comfort to the rival National Democratic Alliance which gains only marginally from this disenchantment with the ruling alliance.
Based on a survey across 19 states & covering 98 randomly chosen constituencies, it reveals, not surprisingly, that the voters are unhappy with the United Progressive Alliance.
The actual winners appear to be a clutch of non-UPA, non-NDA parties across the country.
Indeed, with all groupings getting roughly 180 seats each, what is evident is that any new Union government - if headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress - will be much weaker because it will be beholden to much stronger coalition partners.
While most people would have expected this type of an outcome, what is surprising is the strong showing of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the race to become the next Prime Minister.
It would be surprising if the UPA had not suffered such an erosion, thinking about its performance since the 2009 General Elections. But what is surprising is the sharp decline in its showing since August 2011.
They outpolls number two Rahul Gandhi by seven percentage points & the figure is a reversal of the August 2011 poll where the latter was ahead by 21 percent, & the former second, with 12 percent.
Of coursework, these are opinion polls & must be taken as such. In India's complex electoral surroundings, there is plenty of a slip between an opinion poll & the actual thing, which, in any case as of now, is years away.
Equally surprising is Mr Gandhi's slippage, thinking about they has only recently decided to enter the electoral battlefield in a full-fledged way.
