Thursday 24 January 2013

ABP News-Nielsen Survey: BJP led-NDA will form govt if polls are held today; Cong-led UPA slip further

New Delhi: If general elections were to be held now, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will leave behind the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) by miles, finds ABP News-Nielsen survey conducted this month in 28 cities across the country. Only 22% of the respondents intend to vote for the UPA while a massive 39% would vote for the NDA. It is important to note here that in all past ABP News-Nielsen surveys last year, BJP and NDA have shown consistent growth through out.

UPA-22%
NDA-39%
Left-3%
Others-17%
Can’t say-19%
Even on party front, 36% of respondents in the survey are intending to vote for BJP, if the Lok Sabha elections are held now, whereas only 18% will vote for Sonia Gandhi-led Congress party.

The survey was conducted across 28 cities with close to 9,000 respondents. It may be noted that the survey was done before the appointment of Rahul Gandhi as Congress vice president and Nitin Gadkari's resignation as BJP president.

Manmohan Singh in trouble, gets poor ratings:
Around 36% of the respondents have given poor or very poor ratings to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 19 per cent at an overall level believe that Manmohan Singh's performance as the Prime Minister is very poor while 17% term it poor. Only 20% of the respondents call PM's performance as good.

Manmohan's performance in his second term is considered to be average by 36% of the respondents. Around 35% term UPA's performance in the last four years as average.

Modi emerges as most suitable candidate for PM's post:
According to ABP News-Nielsen survey, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister. He beats Congress leader Rahul Gandhi quite comfortably. As many as 48% respondents favoured Modi as PM while only 18% wanted Rahul to take over the top post.

Only 7% of the respondents feel the incumbent Manmohan Singh is an ideal candidate to become the PM again.

Around 49% say that they would vote for the BJP on the assumption that at the time of 2014 general elections Narendra Modi will lead BJP and Congress’ support will drop by another %age to 17%.

Modi who has turned out to be a poster boy of the BJP since 2002 could be a big reason as to why 57% of the respondents feel that the BJP can be led more stably if the Gujarat CM comes to power at the Centre.

BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani is way behind in garnering votes for him as Modi leads him 57:11 as a better leader in the party. Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has garnered only 9% of votes. 39% of the respondents think that Rahul Gandhi should be the Congress candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Only 16% are in favour of Manmohan Singh.

Will vote for this party, if General Election happens today
Assuming Narendra Modi is leading BJP in 2014, now which party would you vote for

Will vote for this party, if General Election happens today
Assuming Narendra Modi is leading BJP in 2014, now which party would you vote for
Base
Total
Base
Total
8842
8842
BJP
36
BJP
49
13
INC
18
INC
17
-1
There is further decrease of 1% for INC, If Narendra Modi leads BJP for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, whereas there is increase of 13% in favor of BJP.
Women targeted: No fear of law, poor policing:
Absence of fear of law and poor policing are the two major reasons cited by respondents for increase in crimes against women in the national capital New Delhi. 60% demand death penalty with 21% want life imprisonment for rapists. Chemical castration gets the nod by 17 %. A high 75% of Delhites do not feel their city is safe for women.

Majority in all cities say that they will report any form of molestation to the police and are unanimous in saying that they would help a victim of any untoward incident like road accident, molestation. Similarly majority across the country feel poor implementation of law and poor rate of conviction leads to more crime against women.

People trust Sheela, Delhi Police should report to her:
When asked if Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit was in complete command of the administration and the Police, do you think she would have handled the situation better – 47% agreed while 36% did not. 37% have exhorted confidence on Sheila Dikshit as they feel the law and order situation will improve if Delhi Police reports to her while 25% say the situation will detoriate. 22% do not think it would make much of a difference.

A high of 57% respondents felt that leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh should have engaged with protesters and given them assurance.

79% respondents in Jamshedpur feel their city is safe, followed by Madhurai where 68% respondents feel the same, whereas 79% respondents in Hyderabad feel their city is very unsafe for women followed by 75% in Delhi and 72% in Cochin.

Sampling and methodology for ABP News-Nielsen survey:

The survey was carried out between the period of January 10, 2013 to January 17, 2013. Total 8842 respondents were surveyed. The target respondent was male/female who is an eligible voter with age 18 years & above and their name registered in the voter's list.

In Northern India, the survey was conducted in eight cities. The cities are: Delhi, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra, Chandigarh, Allahabad and Patiala. In Southern India, the survey was conducted in six cities. The cities are: Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Madurai and Vijayawada.

In Eastern India, the survey was conducted in five cities. The cities are: Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati. In Western India, the survey was conducted in nine cities. The cities are: Indore, Mumbai, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Pune, Raipur, Kolhapur, Nagpur and Aurangabad.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

The Indian Lok Sabha General Elections '2014

Congress had an emphatic victory in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. UPA-2 started on a high by winning almost full majority on its own. However, their second term has been marred with controversies and corruption allegations. Starting with Commonwealth Games scam, every few months saw a new scam coming out like Adarsh Society scam and the biggest of all, the 2G scam. Fuel and commodity prices have risen sharply in the past few years adding to the woes of common man. Crusade against black money and corruption by Anna Hazare and to some extent baba Ramdev has only added to the woes of Congress. But Congress is shrewd and knows politics quite well. They know that offense is the best way to defend. For every scam or corruption news that comes out, they bounce back with equally controversial news against rival parties. Their projection of Rahul Gandhi, who has not yet proved any political sense, as a Prime Ministerial candidate may help them in their campaign build up to 2014 polls.

Bhartiya Janata Party was left down and out after the 2009 polls. BJP's arch enemy is not Congress but BJP itself. It's leaders have failed to capitalize on core issues of price rise and corruption against the Congress. They should have learned from how Congress and some smaller parties have been able to successfully use the anti-minority tag against the BJP for over two decades now. BJP has also lost a lot of mass appeal leaders over the years. Most popular elader in india Atal Behari Vajpayee has now retired from active politics. Charasmatic leader and face of modern India, Pramod Mahajan was killed in a tragic incident. Stalwarts like Govindacharya and Jaswant Singh were thrown out. Prime Ministerial candidate Murli Manohar Joshi has been made to sit on the sidelines with no influence on national level politics. L K Advani is close to retirement years and firebrand Sushma Swaraj hasn't proved to be a winner yet. That leaves the party with only one leader of mass appeal, Narendra Modi, who may not yet be ready to leave Gujarat and join National level politics. Besides, everyone knows Congress will play the anti-minority tag aginst him quite well. BJP has also destroyed its chances by not forming strategic alliances with other parties in states. It used to ahve an allaince with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, Mamata Banerjee's TMC in West Bengal and BJD in Orissa, but they have all left BJP group now. BJP's loss has been Congress's gain.


Third Front parties have been reduced to play a minority role at the center over the past few years. Leaders like Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Jayalalitha, Mayawati are no longer king makers. Most of them have been left with no option then to support the ruling Govt, in this case the Congress. Left Front has already become non-existent after the debacle in 2011 Assembly elections and it'd be highly unlikely that they'd make any comeback by 2014. FOr the past few years, most third Front allies have been hob-nobbing with the Congress, which raises doubts on their very existence. Third Front was formed to combat BJP as well as Congress, but if you are going to chose Congress after the polls every time, then won't it better for people to vote for Congress directly? Third Front needs to get its priorities right and decide on thei future survival options, because as of now their future looks bleak.

The Contenders for India Elections 2014:

Though Congress may not admit it yet, but Manmohan Singh may be shown the door out, and Congress may prefer to field Rahul Gandhi as its Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014. it may be too ealryfor Rahul to lead the nation as he has not proven his political accumen yet, but after the negative reviews UPA-2 is gathering, Congress amy want to chnage Manmohan Singh. As for BJP, the choice may be between one last try for L K Advani and popular leader Narendra Modi.

The Prime Ministerial Candidates:

1. UPA: Rahul Gandhi or Dr. Manmohan Singh
2. NDA: MR. L. K. Advani or Narendra Modi
3. Third Front: Depends on which party wins the most seats

Tuesday 22 January 2013

2014 General Elections: Will it be Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi?

As Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed her party members Friday in Jaipur at the ‘Chintan Shivir’, a unanimous demand to declare Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 General Elections was put forth by the party leaders.

Interestingly, reports on Friday claimed that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is likely to lead BJP’s campaign for the 2014 polls.

Following the developments, a possibility of a face-off between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi appears quite apparent.

Elections in India

India has an asymmetric federal government, with elected officials at the federal, state and local levels. At the national level, the head of government, Prime Minister, is elected by the members of Lok Sabha, lower house of the parliament of India.[1] All members of Lok Sabha except two, who can be nominated by president of India, are directly elected through general elections which takes place every five years, in normal circumstances, by universal adult suffrage.[2] Members of Rajya Sabha, upper house of Indian parliament, are elected by elected members of the legislative assemblies of states and electoral college for Union Territories of India.[3]
In 2009, the elections involved an electorate of 714 million[4] (larger than both EU and US elections combined[5]). Declared expenditure has trebled since 1989 to almost $300 million, using more than one million electronic voting machines.[6]
The size of the huge electorate mandates that elections be conducted in a number of phases (there were four phases in 2004 General Elections and five phases in 2009 General Elections). It involves a number of step-by-step processes from announcement of election dates by the Election Commission of India, which brings into force the 'model code of conduct' for the political parties, to the announcement of results and submission of the list of successful candidates to the executive head of the state or the centre. The submission of results marks the end of the election process, thereby paving way for the formation of the new government.