BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is leaps and bounds ahead of his rivals in the crucial Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, with a new survey predicting he will bag 56 per cent of the votes in the holy city.

According to the poll conducted by India Today Group and Cicero, Modi's projected share of votes will place him far ahead of Ajay Rai of the Congress (15 per cent), Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (10 per cent), Kailash Nath Chaurasia of the Samajwadi Party (9 per cent) and Vijay Prakash Jaiswal of the Bahujan Samaj Party (7 per cent).

When respondents were asked whether Modi's decision to contest from Varanasi would benefit the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other Hindi-speaking states, fifty-one per cent replied in the affirmative. Varanasi is a part of Uttar Pradesh's Poorvanchal belt, and the politics of the region has an influence on neighbouring Bihar, where six seats will go to the polls in the last phase on May 12.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Significantly, Modi stands to get the backing of more than 40 per cent voters from almost all communities. The Jatavs, who have traditionally backed Mayawati's BSP, and Muslims, who have usually supported the Congress, are the only exceptions. Also, 78 per cent of other backward caste (OBC) voters are expected to back the Gujarat chief minister.

According to the poll, Modi is the choice of 77 per cent of Varanasi's Brahmins, 80 per cent of Rajputs, 81 per cent of Vaishyas, 67 per cent of Bhumihars, 76 per cent of other upper castes, 65 per cent of Kumri-Koeris and 53 per cent of other Dalits.

Among the Jatavs, 44 per cent are expected to back the BSP and 33 per cent, the BJP. Forty per cent of Muslims are projected to vote for the Congress, 21 per cent for AAP and 17 per cent for the BJP.

The gap between the BJP's share of votes in the rural and urban areas of Varanasi, one of two constituencies from where Modi is contesting the polls, is not very wide either. The party is expected to win 49 per cent of the rural voteshare and 61 per cent of the urban.

When asked who they wanted as India's next prime minister, 57 per cent of the respondents named Modi, 12 per cent Rahul Gandhi and 10 per cent Arvind Kejriwal. Nine per cent voted for SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and 7 per cent for BSP president Mayawati.

On a specific question on who among Modi, Rai and Kejriwal better understood the issues and people of Varanasi, 52 per cent voted for the BJP candidate.

Modi got 7.5 times more TV coverage than Rahul

Research by a Delhi-based thinktank has revealed that primetime news coverage has been overwhelmingly dominated by BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

His main rivals, Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, trail Modi by huge margins to occupy the third and second positions, respectively, the Centre for Media Studies Media Lab study has revealed. In fact, Modi got almost 7.5 times the coverage Rahul did. The research - conducted over 61 days between March 1 and April 30, 2014 - was based on primetime (8-10pm) election coverage by five major news channels.



Modi-related news made up 33.1 per cent (2,575 minutes) of the entire coverage, while Kejriwal and Rahul got 10.31 (799 minutes) and 4.33 per cent (336 minutes), respectively.