Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of the ruling Congress party, is the favourite politician, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of India's ruling Congress party, is the country's favourite politician, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.
The poll, carried by the Hindustan Times newspaper, also found that most Indians think Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - ushered into office after Gandhi turned down the job in 2004 - is doing a good job.
Former Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) fell behind Gandhi, who turned 60 last month, in the popularity stakes, with 18.5 percent of votes against 28.3 percent for the Congress leader.
Opinion polls in the past had put Gandhi behind Vajpayee, credited with bringing India out of the nuclear closet in 1998.
The New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies interviewed 15,373 randomly selected people from 19 of India's 29 states for the study, commissioned by the Hindustan Times and CNN-IBN news channel.
The poll also found that the Congress party and its allies would win 300 of the 545 seats in parliament if mid-term elections were called now.
Congress and its allies currently have 222 seats, and the government is surviving with the support of 61 Communist MPs.
According to the survey, Vajpayee's party-led opposition coalition would get only 115 seats, down from the 189 it now has in parliament.
Although Prime Minister Singh came in third in the political popularity stakes with 13.1 percent of votes, 76 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with his government. Sonia Gandhi, the widow of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, does not hold any post except that of MP, but is believed to wield enormous power over Singh's government.
The poll was published ahead of important state polls next month. It found the Congress party ahead in the northern states of Punjab and Uttarakhand.
However, in the politically crucial northern state of Uttar Pradesh - where polls are due later this year - the Congress was still lagging behind two regional parties, the survey showed.
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