India business favours Narendra Modi to be PM: poll

The Nielsen/Economic Times poll of 100 corporate leaders showed 74% wanted Modi to be PM while just 7% favoured Rahul Gandhi

AFP
Published6 Sep 2013, 05:16 PM IST
Modi has become popular in India&#8217;s corporate world where he is seen as a market-friendly leader who has energetically wooed industry to set up factories in his state. Photo: Mint<br />
Modi has become popular in India&#8217;s corporate world where he is seen as a market-friendly leader who has energetically wooed industry to set up factories in his state. Photo: Mint(Mint)

New Delhi: India’s business community strongly supports Hindu hardliner Narendra Modi to be the next premier, a poll showed Friday, with the ruling Congress party’s heir-apparent, Rahul Gandhi, trailing a distant second.

add_main_imageModi, chief minister of the economically thriving Gujarat state, is expected to be tapped to be prime minister if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins a general election due by May.

The Nielsen/Economic Times newspaper poll of 100 corporate leaders showed 74% wanted Modi to be prime minister while just seven per cent believed Gandhi would be the best choice.NextMAds

Modi, popularly known as “NaMo”, was named the BJP’s election committee chairman in June and has sought to broaden his appeal by pitching himself as an advocate of economic development rather than Hindu supremacy, by stressing his achievements in promoting industry.

He has not stated publicly he wants to prime minister, but has painted himself as a pro-business reformist who can revive the fortunes of the world’s largest democracy, which is suffering a sharp economic slowdown and whose currency’s value has plunged.

Analysts have raised fears that India could face a crunch of the sort it suffered in 1991 when a foreign exchange-strapped government had to pawn its gold for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.

Modi has become popular in India’s corporate world where he is seen as a market-friendly leader who has energetically wooed industry to set up factories in his state.

But he remains a divisive figure after being accused of doing nothing to stop Hindu mobs massacring Muslims during riots in his state in 2002 in which as many 2,000 people died, according to rights groups.

While Modi has denied any wrongdoing, one of his former ministers was jailed last year for orchestrating some of the 2002 violence and India’s Supreme Court once likened him to Nero, the emperor who fiddled while Rome burned.sixthMAds

Gandhi, 43, who is some two decades younger than Modi, and who has a vastly different background and personality, has been groomed for the premier’s job by his mother, Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.

But he has shown a marked reluctance to pursue the post with 80-year-old premier Manmohan Singh expected to step aside following the election and declared earlier this year he was not “a hard-nosed politician”.

The Congress-led government is lagging badly in the polls, its popularity sapped by the economic downturn and a slew of corruption scandals.

Catch all the Politics News and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

MoreLess
First Published:6 Sep 2013, 05:16 PM IST
Business NewsPoliticsPolicyIndia business favours Narendra Modi to be PM: poll

Get Instant Loan up to ₹10 Lakh!

  • Employment Type

    Most Active Stocks

    ITC share price

    480.75
    11:13 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    0.7 (0.15%)

    Infosys share price

    1,810.10
    11:13 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    56.3 (3.21%)

    Larsen & Toubro share price

    3,599.80
    11:13 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    24.4 (0.68%)

    Tata Steel share price

    150.40
    11:13 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -1.9 (-1.25%)
    More Active Stocks

    Market Snapshot

    • Top Gainers
    • Top Losers
    • 52 Week High

    Eclerx Services share price

    3,259.65
    11:09 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    227.75 (7.51%)

    Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation share price

    1,369.35
    11:07 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    48.55 (3.68%)

    National Aluminium Company share price

    234.75
    11:10 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -0.25 (-0.11%)

    Suven Pharmaceuticals share price

    1,325.85
    11:11 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -7.25 (-0.54%)
    More from 52 Week High

    Hindustan Zinc share price

    516.80
    11:11 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -42.65 (-7.62%)

    Triveni Engineering & Indus share price

    401.60
    11:10 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -15.65 (-3.75%)

    Timken India share price

    3,319.95
    11:11 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -100.2 (-2.93%)

    Titan Company share price

    3,141.85
    11:11 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    -91.2 (-2.82%)
    More from Top Losers

    Dixon Technologies (India) share price

    15,676.10
    11:11 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    1280.1 (8.89%)

    Eclerx Services share price

    3,259.65
    11:09 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    227.75 (7.51%)

    DCM Shriram share price

    1,122.15
    11:10 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    74.3 (7.09%)

    Kaynes Technology India share price

    5,676.55
    11:11 AM | 6 NOV 2024
    359.85 (6.77%)
    More from Top Gainers

    Recommended For You

      More Recommendations

      Gold Prices

      • 24K
      • 22K
      Bangalore
      80,255.000.00
      Chennai
      80,261.000.00
      Delhi
      80,413.000.00
      Kolkata
      80,265.000.00

      Fuel Price

      • Petrol
      • Diesel
      Bangalore
      102.92/L0.00
      Chennai
      100.80/L0.00
      Kolkata
      104.95/L0.00
      New Delhi
      94.77/L0.00

      Popular in Politics

        HomeMarketsPremiumInstant LoanMint Shorts