Opinion | Elections 2024: Why Brand Modi Is Unlikely To Fizzle Out Anytime Soon

The latest Morning Consult approval ratings of global leaders, based on data collected from February 29 to March 6, once again show Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the charts. He enjoys a net approval rating of 62% – that is, of the respondents, 78% approved of him, while 16% did not. 

Only six of the 25 leaders tracked have a positive rating, while the rest 19 have a negative net approval rating. They include France’s Emmanuel Macron, the US’s Joe Biden and the UK’s Rishi Sunak. 

According to the C-Voter’s Mood of the Nation (MOTN) survey, in terms of domestic ratings, 55% of voters prefer to see Modi as prime minister again, against 14% of people who support Rahul Gandhi. Modi’s popularity ratings have changed in cycles. They jumped from around 40% in February 2016 to 65% in January 2017 (just after demonetisation), then fell to 46% just before the Balakot airstrikes in 2019, before reaching 66% again in 2020 post his emphatic win in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.