Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the Assembly elections in Odisha, Naveen Patnaik’s popularity remains intact with more than 50 per cent people of the state keen to see him as the Chief Minister again.
A recent survey by the India Today’s Political Stock Exchange (PSE), about 59 per cent of the respondents want him as the Chief Minister again while 21 per cent backed Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
With regards to the performance of the state government, the survey revealed that 44 per cent of the respondents were satisfied with the performance of the ruling BJD government while 19 per cent expressed dissatisfaction.
The survey report has also said that the issue of Rafale deal raked up by the Congress in Odisha has had no effect as 76 per cent of the people were not aware of the deal. Among those aware of the deal, 79 per cent were of the view that the Centre should not reveal its price in public.
Drinking water was the biggest problem in the state followed by agricultural issues and healthcare.
On the other hand, 54 per cent of the respondents in the state had favoured Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister again in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections while 21 per cent backed Congress president Rahul Gandhi to be the Prime Minister.
The survey was conducted on telephonic interviews across 21 parliamentary constituencies in the state with a sample size of 8,232.