Popularity of PM Modi remains intact despite Adani saga, shows poll

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s enormous popularity remains intact despite the biggest political attack on him in years as rivals accuse his government of giving undue favours to the Adani Group, approval ratings showed on Friday.    

Opposition parties staged street protests demanding an investigation into the business group founded by Gautam Adani, which has lost more than $110 billion in market value after a scathing report by a US short seller on January 24. 

Data from polling agency C-Voter seems to suggest support for the prime minister has not waned, although the survey did not refer to the Adani issue. 

Almost half of those surveyed until February 5 were “very much satisfied” with Modi’s work as PM and a further 30 per cent said they were “satisfied to some extent”.  Both ratings have hovered around the same levels since November 2022, the data showed.

In January, the Mood of the Nation opinion poll conducted by C-Voter for India Today, showed 72 per cent of respondents rated Modi’s performance as “good”, up from 66 per cent in August last year. 

But Modi has been facing sustained Opposition fire since US-based Hindenburg Research accused the Adani Group of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens, while also saying it had unsustainable debt. The group denies the claims and has threatened legal action against Hindenburg.

Senior ministers and top government officials have sought to counter the Opposition accusations by saying the crisis in the Group posed no risk to state-run companies and regulators would look into any wrongdoing by it.

The issues raised by Hindenburg were corporate and not political and should be treated as such, said Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a spokesperson for Bharatiya Janata Party.