NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party will secure a clear majority in the general election this summer, a win that will ensure a comfortable third term for Mr Modi, an opinion poll showed on Feb 8.
Findings from the “Mood of the Nation Poll”, carried out by private media group India Today, showed that voters continue to see Mr Modi as a popular nationalist leader who has accelerated growth and improved foreign ties. There was no breakdown of respondents to the survey by religion.
The poll of 35,801 respondents conducted across India between Dec 15 and Jan 28 found Mr Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies could win 335 of the 543 directly elected seats in the Lower House of Parliament.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition won more than 350 seats in the 2019 election.
But top BJP leaders have proclaimed that they are looking beyond 400 seats, making it the most decisive victory ever.
The survey showed that a political alliance of the main opposition Congress and over two dozen regional parties, called India, could secure 166 seats.
Regional parties could be on a winning streak in southern Indian states where the BJP could fail to win many seats, it showed.
But polls and surveys in India have a mixed record, with many often getting election results in the world’s biggest democracy wrong.
India’s economy is now the fifth-largest in the world, from the 10th-largest when Mr Modi first took office a decade ago, and the fastest expanding among major nations.
Promising change, Mr Modi swept to power in 2014, and he has consolidated his hold since with a focus on boosting infrastructure and aggressive Hindu nationalism.
The survey also found that 42 per cent of respondents admired Mr Modi in 2024 for his decision to inaugurate a grand temple to Hindu deity Ram in Ayodhya, built on the site of a centuries-old mosque razed by hardline Hindus in 1992.
At least 19 per cent of respondents credited Mr Modi for raising India’s global stature, and 12 per cent said revoking the autonomy of the only Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir region bordering Pakistan was an achievement.
REUTERS
