Despite the unabashed criticism from the opposition parties and sustained negative campaign by the vernacular media at large about the alleged mismanagement of Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is still among the top five best chief ministers in India.
This was revealed by the latest “Mood Of The Nation” survey released by popular English magazine India Today on August 16. The survey is based on the people’s opinion collected till July end.
In the Mood of the Nation survey conducted in January this year, Jagan Mohan Reddy stood at fifth position among the best CMs in the country with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the No. 1 position, followed by Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal and Nitish Kumar of Bihar. Now, Jagan has retained this fifth position.
As per the latest India Today MOTN survey, new chief minister of Tamil Nadu M K Stalin is the most popular CM in the country, followed by Naveen Patnaik of Odisha, Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala, Uddhav Thackeray of Maharashtra and Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal. In fact, Jagan was in the fourth position in May, but his rank fell to ninth position in June.
But within a month, his popularity rating shot up sharply by six percent and he moved to fifth position, thanks to the steps taken by him such as announcement of Rs 10 lakh fixed deposit for orphaned children of Covid-19 pandemic and relief measures taken for Cyclone Nivar.
However, Jagan’s overall rating came down, compared to the last year, when he was at the top of the list, being adjusted as the best CM in the country.
Compared to Jagan, the popularity rating of neighbouring Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is very low. He now stands at 12th position among the CMs in the country.
The survey said KCR has lost both in rank and his popularity rating went from 8th to 10th position in May. In June with 7% decline he was at 14th position. However, in July, there is a slight increase in his popularity, taking his position to 12.
Three out of the top five Chief Ministers won the May assembly elections indicating a honeymoon effect.
Interestingly, the ‘Mood of the Nation’ survey has found that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who until last year was the first choice as next prime minister for 66% of the country, has seen a slip to 24%.
A large reason behind this is the second wave of COVID-19, the way the Centre handled it and the related and crucial economic concerns that it gave rise to.
The second-most popular choice for prime minister is Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath, who 11% have mentioned as first choice for the post.
At third, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is first choice for prime minister for 10%.
Both Adityanath and Gandhi have seen a rise in popularity – the former from 3% last year and the latter from 8%.
