On 22 February 2019, the official Twitter handle of Youth Congress posted a tweet claiming that Rahul Gandhi’s popularity has increased among BJP workers also. They claimed that 9% BJP supporters said that Rahul Gandhi will be a better Prime Minister than Narendra Modi, and they will elect Rahul Gandhi as Prime Minister. Attaching an infographic, the organisation claimed that soon this 9% will convert into 100%, and asked Narendra Modi to keep watching.
But it seems that the Youth Congress is suffering from a severe comprehension problem. Because, the data they are quoting is from an online survey conducted among the general public, not just BJP supporters as they are claiming. The infographic they have used is from a mega Times Group online poll, which shows that 83.89% respondents prefer Narendra Modi as Prime Minister if general elections were held today. Rahul Gandhi comes in a distant second position with only 8.33% votes.
Somehow, Youth Congress interpreted it as positive news for the party, and also for some reason thought that Rahul Gandhi’s 8.33% popularity will increase to 100% very soon.
According to the Times of India, over 2 lakh responders took the survey, and 83.03% of respondents said the most likely outcome of the general elections is a Modi-led NDA election. Only 9.25% thought Congress-led alliance will win the elections.
The survey had a question specific to Rahul Gandhi, which asked whether the respondents consider Rahul Gandhi to be more popular at present compared to 2014, and 63.03% didn’t think so, while 31.15% said that Rahul Gandhi has improved in last 5 years. This question was only related to Rahul Gandhi’s improvement, and not a comparative opinion with Narendra Modi or any other leader.
Interestingly, the survey also finds that 65.51% of the respondents don’t feel more insecure under the Modi government, which contradicts the narrative of intolerance being built by the Congress party and the Congress-friendly media.
Overall, the poll projects a very positive results for the Modi government, which was done online among general public and not just BJP workers. Therefore, it is very intriguing to see Youth Congress getting so excited after seeing such a result, which shows that most people think that the party will perform poorly in the Lok Sabha elections.
