ABP-C Voter Survey: 45 % respondents feel PM Modi's image won't get affected by Rafale controversy

As per Prime Minister Modi who has been consistently rated as the most favoured candidate to become the PM has seen a dip in his popularity. On the contrary, the Congress President Rahul Gandhi who was seen lagging behind has made major grounds and witnessed a surge in his candidates the nation's next PM.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

As the 2019 General election draws near, the political parties have stepped up their ante against each by looking for any possible chink in their armours and exposing their weak links. The ruling BJP at the centre seems to be constantly targeted by the opposition parties over the Rafale deal, in which the BJP-led NDA is accused of fabricating the pricing terms and conditions of the fighter jet acquisition to favour the business interests of a close linked businessman.

The ABP-C Voter poll survey which was conducted pan India to gauge the mood of the voter has projected a hung Lok Sabha in the upcoming general elections  as neither the NDA nor the UPA is likely to attain a clear majority of winning 272 parliamentary seats to form the government in the Centre. As per the survey, BJP-led NDA is likely to win 233 out of the 543 seats, while the Congress-led UPA is expected to clinch 167 seats, while the others are expected to win 143 seats.

As per Prime Minister Modi who has been consistently rated as the most favoured candidate to become the PM has seen a dip in his popularity. On the contrary, the Congress President Rahul Gandhi who was seen lagging behind has made major grounds and witnessed a surge in his candidates the nation's next PM.

The ABP-Voter survey asked the questions to the respondents whether PM Modi's image had been maligned because of the Rafale Controversy

• Don't Know / Can't Say - 8.6%
• Yes, a lot - 24.8%
• Yes, to some extent - 21.7%
• Not at all - 44.9%

Verdict: If we analyse the survey results, the Rafale controversy has led to considerable damage to PM Modi's image in the Southern and Western part of the country, however, his reputation is intact in the Northern, North East and Eastern region. If we analyse the figures across India, the PM's image hasn't taken much of a hit as 44.9 percent respondents said the controversy had no impact on the Modi's popularity.

Rafale Deal Background:

The ruling BJP at the centre seems to be constantly targeted by the opposition parties over the Rafale deal, in which the BJP-led NDA is accused of fabricating the pricing terms and conditions of the fighter jet acquisition to favour the business interests of a close linked businessman. While the BJP maintains that there has been no discrepancy or financial irregularities at their end to buy the fighter jets for the Indian Air Force, the Congress has alleged the govt of nepotism by handing the contract of the deal to a close businessman. The Congress President has pressed the government on several occasions to make the pricing of the aircraft's public, while the BJP has come out in its defense saying that the 36 ready to fly' aircrafts acquired were fully weaponized, hence drawing a comparison with the price negotiated during the UPA regime rule isn't a fair comparison. The Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Parliament that the details of the deal with France for the Rafale fighter jets cannot be disclosed as per the inter-governmental agreement as it is "classified information".

The CVoter Tracker is carried out each and every week, 52 waves in a calendar year, in 11 national languages, across all States in UTs in India. All our polls are based on a random probability sample as used in the globally standardized methodology, carried out by trained researchers across all geographic and demographic segments. This survey is based on CATI interviews of adult (18+) respondents across all segments. The data is weighted to known census profile The Release Date of the survey was  24th January 2019. The survey was carried out from 3rd Week December 2018 to 3rd Week January 2018 on  a sample Size of 22309 The sample spread entailed  all 543 Lok Sabha seats across all the states. MoE: +/- 3% at macro level and +/- 5% at micro level @ Confidence interval: 95%