A Mood of the Nation Poll, conducted nationwide by Hansa Research in collaboration with the India Today Group, has found that 61 per cent of the respondents consider Narendra Modi to be an excellent prime minister while an overwhelming 71 per cent of them said they were satisfied with the performance of his government.

Significantly, despite the opposition accusing the Modi government of being remote-controlled by their ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a mere 12 per cent thought that to be the case. Both Modi and the BJP president, Amit Shah, are imports from the RSS to the BJP.

Despite RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent remarks that Modi was not responsible for BJP's 2014 win, an overwhelming 64 per cent of the respondents disagreed with that view. Also, one-third of the respondents said Amit Shah will drive the party to new heights.

In another good news for the 3-month-old dispensation at the Centre, an emphatic 61 per cent of the respondents said Modi's victory has not encouraged Hindu fundamentalists. The finding is good news for the BJP, which has been accused by the opposition of creating communal divide through right-wing groups affiliated to the saffron party.

On a beleaguered Congress, over half of the respondents felt that the party cannot do without the Gandhi family at the helm of affairs. Over a third of those surveyed also felt the party can do better without the Gandhis.

Interestingly, just 28 per cent of the respondents felt that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter, Priyanka Gandhi, should replace her brother and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the party. That despite a massive 60 per cent of the respondents saying Rahul's style of leadership, panned heavily during the last Lok Sabha polls, would benefit his party.

Three months after the BJP won 282 seats in what was its best performance in general elections, reducing the Congress to a position where it cannot even claim the Leader of the Opposition post in Lok Sabha, the Mood of the Nation poll also found that if polls are held again today, the BJP will gain 32 more seats while Congress would go down from 44 to 40.

In the politically-significant Uttar Pradesh, the survey found that the BJP has built up on its sensational performance in the general elections when its alliance won 73 out of 80 seats. That number could go up to 76, the poll found. The finding pushes the regional heavyweights - Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati - further to the brink.

In neighbouring Bihar where 10 Assembly seats went to the bypolls on Thursday, the survey found that the recently-formed Lalu Prasad-Nitish Kumar alliance has not been able to dent the Modi wave in the state. The BJP-LJP alliance won 31 seats out of 40 in the last Lok Sabha polls.

Most of the respondents in the Mood of the Nation felt removal of poverty remains the first priority for Modi and that it is the poor and not the corporates who would gain most from his tenure. An emphatic 70 per cent of them also said the NDA government represents development and good governance, the major planks of the BJP in its Lok Sabha manifesto.

The extensive results of Mood of the Nation 2014 is the cover story of this issue of India Today magazine. Grab your copy.

