The PM drew strong support from people on the issue of demonetisation as 45 per cent respondents believe it will help curb black money and corruption.

Narendra Modi is best suited to be India's next Prime Minister and the ruling National Democratic Alliance led by him would romp to power with 360 seats if Lok Sabha elections were held now. These are the principal findings of the latest India Today Mood of the Nation opinion poll that also registered widespread support for the government's demonetisation initiative and surgical strikes in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Around two-thirds of the respondents see Modi as the top pick to become the next Prime Minister, leading his nearest rival- Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi- by 55 percentage points. The latest edition of the MOTN survey was conducted by market research firm Karvy Insights Limited across 19 states from the end of demonetisation deadline on December 30 until January 9. A total of 12,143 interviews were carried out (53% in rural & 47% in urban), spread across 97 parliamentary constituencies in 194 assembly seats.

The study shows that there would be a three percentage point rise in the BJP's vote share, and 2 per cent & 1 per cent drops in vote shares of Others and the Congress respectively. The BJP would get more than 300 seats on its own if parliamentary elections were held now, with substantial gains since the survey done in August.

The study shows that there would be a three percentage point rise in the BJP's vote share, and 2 per cent & 1 per cent drops in vote shares of Others and the Congress respectively. The BJP would get more than 300 seats on its own if parliamentary elections were held now, with substantial gains since the survey done in August.

The PM's score has gone up 15 percentage points, is the highest ever in the past six surveys, and has grown across all religions in the last three opinion polls.

Also Read: India Today Mood of the Nation poll: PM Modi's demonetisation move gets a thumbs up, 10 big takeaways

People are also supporting Modi's performance as Prime Minister with 69% rating his performance as either good or outstanding. That's a jump of 16 percentage points over the survey done six months ago.

Also, 1 out of every 4 respondents considers his performance to be "outstanding" this time, compared to 9% in the edition six months ago and 16% in the survey done a year ago.

Modi also seems to have got the thumbs up from people on the issue of demonetisation as 45% of the respondents believe that the ban on the old 500 and 1,000-rupee notes will help curb black money and corruption while 35% also believe that it will be good for the economy.

However, 68% of the respondents feel that the government should lower income tax rates in this Budget, post demonetisation, while 61% say the NDA government now needs to crack down on election funding of political parties. 53% of the respondents believe that the confusion over demonetisation rules has dented the image and credibility of the RBI, while 55% of the respondents believe that the implementation of the scheme was bad or could have been better.

On whether the cash ban issue would help the BJP in the crucial Uttar Pradesh and Punjab polls, 56 per cent of the respondents said "Yes".

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The Congress's antics in Parliament seem to have been keenly observed by the voters as 39 per cent of the people feel that the grand old party and its allies are responsible for the stalemate.

Only 18 per cent respondents believe that the BJP and its allies are disrupting the functioning of the two Houses.

On the issue of Pakistan, the Modi government seems to have got the people's endorsement as 58 per cent of the survey respondents feel that last year's surgical strikes were much-needed to teach the rogue neighbour a lesson.

"62% of the respondents feel that the Modi government has handled relations with Pakistan satisfactorily or handled it well," the poll says.

The surgical strikes took place in September where India's Para Special Forces had crossed over into Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir to destroy terrorist launch pads there.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar emerged as the best performing chief minister in the country while his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal's popularity ratings have come down by half in the past six months. Though Rahul Gandhi's popularity is going down in comparison to Narendra Modi, the Nehru-Gandhi scion emerged as the best alternative to PM Modi, with the backing of 28 per cent respondents. Kumar and Kejriwal occupied the second and third positions respectively. Gandhi's popularity has gone up over the survey done six months ago.

The survey also found the popularity of Kejriwal has come down since August. No leader emerged as a strong choice to lead a mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance. 11 per cent of the people felt that Kejriwal is the best bet to lead a third front/mahagathbandhan, but his score has dipped since the last survey.

The Modi government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is its most popular initiative with the endorsement of 27 per cent of the respondents. With 16 per cent votes, Jan Dhan Yojana was the second most successful programme, followed by Digital India at 12 per cent.