Narendra Modi beats Vajpayee, Nehru, Indira to emerge best ever PM in India Today survey

Narendra Modi has been voted as the best ever Prime Minister of India in the India Today Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll. The poll reflects the sentiments of people as of July 2018. The popularity of Narendra Modi as the prime minister has declined a little over the last MOTN survey conducted in January this year but he remains the best among all the prime ministers the country has had.

Narendra Modi received 26 per cent vote in the July MOTN survey followed by Indira Gandhi, who got 20 per cent vote of 12,100 participants. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died on August 16 after a prolonged illness in New Delhi, was voted as the third best prime minister ahead of Jawaharlal Nehru, who got 10 per cent votes. Vajpayee got 12 per cent votes in the MOTN survey.

HD Deve Gowda and PV Narsimha Rao are the ones occupying the bottom of the table. Deve Gowda and Rao along with Chandrashekhar and VP received one per cent vote each.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity as the best ever person in the chair has consistently declined since July 2017, when he got 33 per cent votes. He got 28 per cent votes in January 2018 MOTN poll. His popularity chart saw an upward trend between February 2016 and July 2017 over four MOTN polls.

In February 2016, Modi received 14 per cent votes followed by 17 per cent in August 2016, 30 per cent in January 2017 and 33 per cent in July 2017. Indira Gandhi's popularity as the best ever prime minister declined correspondingly over the same period.

Indira Gandhi had received 26 per cent vote in February 2016 followed by 23 per cent in August 2016, 18 per cent in January 2017 and 17 per cent July 2017 before picking up to 20 per cent in both January 2018 and July 2018 MOTN polls.

Among Hindu voters, Narendra Modi remains the first choice as the best prime minister followed by Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A total of 28 per cent Hindu voters favoured Narendra Modi. However, only 11 per cent Muslims voted Narendra Modi as the best ever prime minister while 26 per cent supported Indira Gandhi.

Of the four broad regions of the country, Narendra Modi is the most favoured choice as a prime minister in North India and East India, remains joint-first choice with Indira Gandhi in West India and trails by three per cent in South India. Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the third choice in all the four regions.