New Delhi: Among those who won the Assembly elections in May 2021, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan were rated as the most popular CMs, closely followed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, as per the latest IANS-CVoter survey. CVoter conducted a year-long extensive assessment on behalf of IANS across the four states and one Union Territory (West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and the UT of Puducherry) that went to the polls last year to ask a series of questions on a wide range of issues.
During the survey, the respondents were asked to rate the performance of the Chief Ministers of their respective states. In the case of Assam, more than 43 percent of the respondents said that they were very much satisfied with the performance of Himanta Biswa Sarma, while in case of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, more than 41 percent expressed the same sentiment.
The high rating of Himanta Biswa Sarma stands out as he is the Chief Minister of a deeply polarised state where Muslims, who constitute more than one-third of the electorate, are not favourably disposed towards the BJP. In contrast, West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee scored 39 percent in the "very much satisfied" category when almost similar number of minorities stand rock solid behind her party. It may be recalled that Sarma had resigned from the Congress to join the BJP in 2015. He played a pivotal role in BJP winning the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam for the first time in the electoral history of the state.
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Another 44 percent of the Tamil Nadu respondents said they were somewhat satisfied with the performance of Stalin, while 37 percent of Assam respondents were somewhat satisfied with the performance of Sarma. Reflecting the polarised nature of politics in Assam, about 18 percent of the respondents were not satisfied with the performance while 13 percent of Tamil Nadu respondents were not satisfied with the performance of Stalin. The surprise winner of 2021, Pinarayi Vijayan, had 41 percent of the respondents very satisfied with his performance, while another 30 percent were somewhat satisfied with his performance. About 27 percent of the respondents were not satisfied with his performance.
Into her third term as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee brought up the rear in the popularity sweepstakes. More than 39 percent of the respondents said they were very satisfied with her performance, while another 41 percent were somewhat satisfied. The poll was conducted on a daily basis for the last 12 months, after these CMs took charge of their respective offices following the fiercely-contested Assembly elections last year.
