PM Narendra Modi is more popular in southern India than North India, says Pew survey

Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains "by far" the most popular figure in Indian politics, the Pew said on Wednesday.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is overwhelmingly popular in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana according to the latest Pew survey. 

As per the Spring 2017 Global Attitudes Survey, at least nine-in-ten Indians in the southern states hold a favorable view of the PM.

Also, he is popular in the western states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.

The same is true for eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and the northern states of Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the survey says.

Incidentally, Kerala was not part of the survey which was conducted between February 21 and March 10, 2017.

At the same time, the survey conducted among 2,464 respondents in India, says that PM Modi at 88 percent is most popular figure in Indian politics, 30 points ahead of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi (58 percent), 31 points ahead of Congress president Sonia Gandhi (57 percent) and 49 points ahead of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (39 percent).

Pew said the public's "positive assessment" of PM Modi is buoyed by "growing contentment" with the Indian economy, more than eight-in-ten say economic conditions are "good", up 19 percentage points since immediately before the 2014 General Election.

"The public is also quite satisfied (79%) with the way their democracy is currently working," the survey says. 

(With inputs from pewglobal.org)