A new opinion poll puts India's prime minister streets ahead of his rival for national elections next month, the Times of India said.
A poll of 2,000 people carried in 10 major Indian cities found 70 percent thought Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was best qualified to be re-elected.
Just 27 percent favoured his main opponent, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, according to the poll carried out by the Times and TNS polling agency.
Parliamentary elections are due in India in five phases beginning April 20.
The polls are tipped as a direct contest between Vajpayee and the Italian-born Gandhi, who entered public life seven years after the assassination of her husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.