The ONE & The ONLY ONE

This is a poser that tests the popularity of chief ministers across the country. Having ranked chief ministers by their net popularity ratings in their respective states, we felt some of them were emerging as models for the nation.

Therefore, we asked all 17,500 voters surveyed who the best chief minister was. About 15 per cent named N. Chandrababu Naidu, 8 per cent Narendra Modi and 7 per cent Mayawati and Sushil Kumar Shinde. While Naidu was more popular among educated young voters in the urban areas, more of Mayawati's support came from across age groups in rural areas, predominantly illiterate Muslims and Dalits.

The myth that Indians vote largely along caste lines was undermined by the fact that while Shinde, a scheduled caste, is more popular among the upper castes, Mayawati, another Dalit leader, draws most of her popularity from the scheduled castes. While Modi from the backward community is more popular among the upper-caste Hindus, Naidu draws his overwhelming support from the OBC voters.