As expected, the opinion polls identify corruption as the biggest downer for the UPA-II Government. A whopping 71 per cent in the CNN-IBN polls said that corruption in public life has increased in the last four years.
Only 20 per cent felt the level of corruption is the same and 8 per cent felt it has come down.
Though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s personal integrity is still somewhat above suspicion, with 40 per cent of the people believing that he is a honest man as against 33 per cent who feel he is no longer above board and 24 per cent saying his honesty quotient has come down, the PMO does not enjoy the same perception.
At least 64 per cent of those polled said Singh’s PMO is trying to cover-up scams like the Coalgate and 2G spectrum allocation with the Prime Minister being blamed for the controversial coal block allocation.
If this was not worrisome, there is more: 61 per cent polled said Singh should be replaced as the PM, only 37 per cent favoured him to continue. After nine years of Singh regime, the people seem to be looking for a change.
Overall, 31 per cent of the respondents in the ABP News-Nielsen polls intend to vote for the BJP as against 20 per cent wanting to go the Congress.