By IANS,
New Delhi : After eight years in power, the prospects of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) seem to be going down against the rising graph of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an ABP News-Nielsen survey said Sunday.
The UPA-II will complete three years in office May 22 (Tuesday).
The survey, conducted across 28 cities in the country in April-May, reveals that the BJP would garner 28 percent of the votes if Lok Sabha elections are held now, while the Congress would manage only 20 percent. The next general elections are scheduled in 2014.
However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ratings are good with 37 percent respondents saying his performance was good or very good.
The performance of the UPA government has been rated slightly below average with a mean score 2.95, which is lower than the mean score of 3.22 last year.
According to the survey, UPA-II seems to be failing in key parameters of governance. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents said UPA-II is India’s most corrupt government post-Independence.
While 25 percent of the respondents wanted the government to take immediate steps to control corruption, 24 percent felt that it should take steps to monitor rising food and petrol prices.
According to the survey, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, with 17 percent votes, is neck-and-neck with Manmohan Singh at 16 percent as the best leader in the country. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s scores have dipped from 19 percent last year to 13 percent this year, the survey said, adding that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s scores are down from 14 percent to 9 percent.