TOI-IPSOS SURVEY - Cities cheer Modi's first 100, say he can be matchwinner





Inflation Main Concern, Poor Least Enthusiastic About Govt

So far, so good. That, in a nutshell, seems to be the popular assessment in big Indian cities about the performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government in the first 100 days in office. They believe that the government has got its priorities largely right and holds promise for the future, but are not too enthused by its tackling of inflation. Modi's own style is seen as a mix of decisive and dictatorial. These are among the findings of an exclusive poll done for TOI in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. Interestingly, there were relatively minor differences in responses of different genders, age groups and socio-economic strata, but huge variations among cities.

On the whole, Chennai and Kolkata emerged as the cities most sceptical of the new government's performance, while Pune, Ahmeda bad, Hyderabad and Bangalore seem the most in awe of Brand Modi. The scepticism of Chennai and Kolkata would seem to reflect the BJP's poll performance in the states and the presence of strong regional parties riding popularity waves. Overall, 16% of respondents rated the performance of the government as `excellent' and another 42% rated it as `good', which means a good majority approve the Modi government. About a third thought it was `average' and roughly a 12th char acterized it as `poor' or `very poor'. As in the responses to several other questions, the lowest socio-economic strata, SEC D, was less enthusiastic about Modi sarkar than the top one, SEC A. Among the top bracket, only one in 20 said the performance was poor or very poor, while in SEC D that proportion was about one in eight. The more sharp variation was in cities, with just 12% in Chennai describing the government's performance as excellent or good against 86% in Pune and 76% in Ahmedabad.

Asked whether the government had got its priorities right, 36% said it had them absolutely right and 53% said they were more or less right. Once again, while 58% in Pune thought the priorities were on the dot, only 5% in Chennai and 24% in Kolkata thought so.

Modi's style was seen as decisive by 51%, dictatorial by 19%, and both dictatorial and decisive by 25%, though these proportions varied significantly across cities. So, overall, Modi was viewed as a leader well in control. On the price front, the government's performance was seen to be not so good. Only 11% felt it had done an excellent job on this front and 37% said it had done a good job, 40% said it was average and the rest said it was either poor or very poor. Mumbai was the most critical with just 20% saying the government had done a good or excellent job versus 33% who said it had done a poor or very poor job of reining in prices.

Leading research agency IPSOS conducted the poll, covering over 2,000 people in the ages 20-60, split equally between male and female and between SECs A to D.

`BJP can't keep promises'

Rae Bareli:

Asked to comment on PM Narendra Modi's 100 days in power, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday, avoiding rhetorical flourish, pointed towards her constituents in Rae Bareli and asked them, "Have the prices reduced?" When locals complained of high costs, she turned to the reporters and said, "See for yourself." On a two-day tour, Sonia wentto villages like Tanda and Bakuliha, where the common refrain was inflation. "They (the BJP) made promises they are unable to keep." Sonia said. TNN