New Delhi : The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee remains immensely popular with the voters, as per an IANS-CVoter survey.
At the same time, residents of the state do not seem to have a very high opinion of the opposition, which is represented principally by the BJP.
This was revealed during an exclusive survey conducted by CVoter on behalf of IANS in the four states — West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala — and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where Assembly elections were held in 2021.
Despite a determined effort by the BJP, which has replaced the Left as the main opposition party in Bengal, Banerjee won a third successive term as Chief Minister last year by fashioning a landslide victory for her party.
According to the survey, 31 per cent of the respondents said that they were very much satisfied with the performance of the state government in the last one year, while 47 per cent said they were somewhat satisfied.
At the same time, more than 22 per cent of those interviewed during the survey said they were not satisfied at all with the performance of the state government.
Similarly, Banerjee scored high in approval ratings as Chief Minister of the state.
During the survey, 39 per cent of the respondents said that they were very much satisfied with the performance of the Chief Minister, while 41 per cent said they were somewhat satisfied with her work.
So, in effect, 80 per cent of those interviewed were happy with the work of the Chief Minister, while only 20 per cent of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with Banerjee’s performance.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP had won about 39 per cent of the total votes polled. But there is no good news for the party in the survey.
As per the survey, while 43 per cent of the respondents said they were not satisfied at all with the performance of the opposition, just about 16 per cent said they were very satisfied. This shows massive dissatisfaction with the way BJP has functioned after becoming the principal opposition party in West Bengal.
The fact is that an overwhelming majority, including BJP voters, rated the opposition’s performance as poor or extremely poor. The BJP leadership was severely criticised for being literally non-existent on the ground when the post-election violence gripped West Bengal last year. It has been evident in the local body polls which the Trinamool swept, and also in the bypolls which the ruling party won hands down.
The cause of concern for Trinamool is not in terms of non-existent opposition, but the poor performance of sitting MPs and MLAs who did not fare very well in public perception.
According to the survey, more than 37 per cent of the respondents said they were not satisfied at all with the performance of their MP, while less than 17 per cent said they were very satisfied.
Similarly, 33 per cent of the respondents said they were not satisfied at all with the performance of their local MLA, while about 25 per cent said they were very satisfied.
Interestingly, while a large proportion of respondents in West Bengal expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the opposition BJP leaders in the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored high in approval ratings for his work and continues to be the preferred choice for the top job in the country.
During the survey, while more than 33 per cent of the respondents in Bengal said that they were very much satisfied with the performance of Modi, close to 32 per cent said they were somewhat satisfied.
So, in effect, almost 65 per cent of those interviewed expressed satisfaction with the performance of the Prime Minister, while more than 34 per cent said that they were not satisfied at all with his performance.
Similarly, when asked about the most suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister in the future, while more than 42 per cent of the respondents in West Bengal answered in favour of Narendra Modi, only 26 per cent favoured Banerjee for the country’s top job.
The survey data also revealed that rising prices and unemployment are the major concerns of the populace in the state.
During the survey, while more than 25 per cent of the respondents said that rising prices was their main problem, 17 per cent said that unemployment was their prime concern.
During the survey, majority of the respondents in the state sounded pessimistic about the future. As per the survey data, while 58 per cent of the respondents said their living standards will deteriorate in the coming year, only 21 per cent said they will improve. Another 11 per cent said that their living standards will remain the same.
–IANS