Sonia tops leadership study

[kantharao]

The Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) is a respected think tank that tracks the major political trends in India. A survey of India’s leadership done by the CSDS earlier this year found that Sonia Gandhi is the tallest leader in the country. The BJP’s prime ministerial pretender L K Advani will be crushed to know that the second most wanted leader today is not he himself but the man he dismisses as a weak prime minister Manmohan Singh. The self-styled Sardar Patel of the BJP trails in third.

The national survey was done in the second week of January. In order to avoid recall bias, the survey asked voters ‘who do you want as the prime minister of India’. The respondents were not given names to choose from.

Surprisingly, 25 per cent of the respondents could not name a person of their choice for the job. Of the leaders named, Sonia Gandhi headed the list with 20 per cent, and Manmohan Singh came in second with 12 per cent (see graphic). Advani, who has been positioning himself for the prime minister’s post since 2004, drew the support of 10 per cent and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, although he is no longer in active politics, came in fourth with 9 per cent. Eight others, Rahul Gandhi (6.4%), Mayawati (5.4%), Mulayam Singh Yadav (3.4%(, Narendra Modi (2.6%), Lalu Prasad (1.9%), Nitish Kumar (1.5%), Jayalalitha (1.3% and Sharad Pawar (1.2%) were also named by voters.

The respondents were then given a set of names and asked to say which of them was most suited to be prime minister. Here too Sonia Gandhi emerged at the top with 40 per cent support. About 23 per cent pointed to Advani. Mayawati raked in 7 per cent and Prakash Karat 3 per cent support.

The respondents were also asked to rate the personal characteristics of a certain number of leaders. On the counts of strength of leadership, integrity and credibility, Sonia Gandhi consistently outscored Advani (see graphic). Manmohan outscored everyone else for his integrity.

What is surprising about these findings is Advani’s claimof ‘strong leader, decisive party’ does not seem to wash with the voter. The vacuum created by the departure of Vajpayee has been occupied by Sonia and Manmohan rather than Advani, his trusted lieutenant.