Naveen No. 1 choice as CM in Odisha: India Today

Bhubaneswar: With only few months to go for Assembly elections in Odisha, ruling BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik once again emerged as the number 1 Chief Minister with highest percent of popularity in the State.

Retaining his popularity, Patnaik is the first choice for Odisha people to hold the office as the CM, revealed a survey conducted by leading English magazine ‘India Today’.

He scored high on popularity with 59 percent of the respondents who want Naveen Patnaik to be the CM of Odisha once again, the survey revealed.

Amidst lots of criticism from opposition leaders over several issues and the government’s alleged failure in executing the central schemes in Odisha, Patnaik continues to woo people with several developmental projects, anti-poverty programmes and welfare schemes.

According to the survey, while 44 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the performance of Odisha government led by Patnaik, only 19 percent people showed dissatisfaction with the government.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has been trying to take credits for centrally sponsored developmental projects in Odisha, was placed second in terms of popularity with 21 percent.

Giving a big thumb up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 54 percent Odisha people want him to be voted to the office in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, while Congress President Rahul Gandhi received only 21 percent votes for the next PM.

The survey was conducted on the basis of telephonic interviews across 21 Lok Sabha seats with sample size of 8,232 as the respondents in Odisha.

Similarly, the survey in other States revealed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is favourite for the post as 38 percent people were satisfied with performance of the government led by him.

However, the study showed that Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das’ popularity is on a decline. Only 34 percent people in Jharkhand were happy with the State government, while 33 percent were dissatisfied.