Election Tracker: Narendra Modi leads PM race, Rahul Gandhi second

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi are the two leaders who are most likely to be projected as the prime ministerial candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

According to the CNN-IBN-CSDS-The Hindu Election Tracker survey, Modi with 19 per cent of the votes is ahead in the prime minister's race followed by Rahul Gandhi with 12 per cent, Manmohan Singh (6 per cent), Sonia Gandhi (5 per cent), Mayawati (3 per cent) and BJP patriarch LK Advani (2 per cent). The figures are a major turnaround from 2009 when Modi had the support of just 2 per cent of the voters with Manmohan Singh leading with 18 per cent. Advani (15 per cent), Sonia Gandhi (16 per cent), Rahul (6 per cent) and Mayawati (5 per cent) were all much ahead of the Gujarat Chief Minister.

In the race between Modi and Rahul, the former is ahead with 33 per cent votes compared to 31 per cent for the Congress leader. Modi is more popular than Rahul in North India (37 per cent vs 29 per cent), Central India (41 per cent vs 33 per cent), West India (43 per cent vs 33 per cent) and East India (34 per cent vs 30 per cent).

But Rahul with 37 per cent leads Modi, who has 17 per cent of the votes, in South India. Rahul (45 per cent) is also more popular that Modi (18 per cent) amongst Muslim voters.

Sixty-six per cent Congress supporters want Rahul to be projected as the prime ministerial candidate while 79 per cent BJP supporters want Modi to be projected for the post.

While current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is considered to be an honest leader by 25 per cent of those surveyed, 14 per cent say he has little control over decisions and nine per cent say that he has allowed corruption to flourish. The satisfaction level with his regime has fallen to 49 per cent in July 2013 from 56 per cent two years ago. There is a sliver lining too with Manmohan still the most liked among top leaders with 63 per cent votes followed by Rahul Gandhi (56 per cent) and Modi (54 per cent).

####