NEW DELHI: The popularity of India's embattled Congress-led government, buffeted by corruption, high inflation and slowing economic growth, has fallen sharply among voters, a new poll says.
The poll, released Saturday, was carried out after 74-year-old self-styled Gandhian campaigner Anna Hazare ended his anti-corruption fast last weekend that caught the government off-guard by galvanizing huge public support.
India's main Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would gain 32 percent of the votes across the country if general elections were held now, the STAR News-Nielsen opinion survey suggested.
Congress, led by 78-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would garner just 20 percent of votes in the poll of 8,926 respondents taken in 28 cities. Other voters favoured regional parties or were undecided.
Hazare's "crusade against corruption has given the beleaguered opposition, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party, a platform to contest" the general election, the pollster said.
Right now in the decision-making elected lower house of parliament, Congress holds 207 seats while the BJP has 115 seats.
The BJP also turned out to be the most favoured party in all regions except in the south where Congress was slightly ahead.
Congress, which was swept back into power in 2004, faces an important electoral test in assembly elections next year in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh and general elections in 2014.
The poll findings were in stark contrast to a similar survey by STAR News-Nielsen in May before the Hazare movement seized the country’s attention.
Then, Congress was ahead with 30 percent of the vote share while BJP had only 23 percent.
Hazare ended his nearly two-week fast in New Delhi before tens of thousands of supporters after a debate in parliament in which lawmakers agreed in principle to his conditions for a tough new anti-corruption law.
The former army truck driver, who idolizes freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi, became a symbol of national dissent for a public angered by series of multi-billion-dollar scandals implicating top government officials, near double-digit inflation and an economy that is losing steam.
On Friday, Hazare pledged no let-up in his anti-corruption campaign, saying he would fight corruption to "the bitter end."
The poll also showed that Congress party's Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was no longer the favourite to take over the country.
If Hazare and Gandhi were to face-off in an election, 78 percent of the respondents would vote for the activist while just 17 percent would pick Gandhi. Even respondents aged 18 to 25 chose Hazare over Gandhi.
The May poll showed that Gandhi was the favourite choice to be the country's next prime minister.
The Gandhi dynasty, which stems from first post-independence premier Jawaharlal Nehru and has no link to Mahatma Gandhi, has exerted huge influence in India during most of its post-independence history.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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