After Modi, who? the question has naturally long kept BJP supporters on the edge. Having led the nation for more than 10 years and approaching his 75th birthday before the end of his third term, it is only natural that people have been thinking about the BJP’s options for a prime ministerial candidate after Narendra Modi.
The August 2024 edition of the India Today Mood of the Nation Survey gives us a peek into who people think would be best to succeed Modi. The India Today Group’s bi-annual flagship survey reveals that with over 25% backing him, Amit Shah is seen as the top choice to succeed PM Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate over other senior BJP leaders like Yogi Adityanath and Nitin Gadkari.
In the second spot with around 19% is the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari is the third most favourable man for the top spot within the saffron party, with 13% of the votes, suggests the India Today Mood of the Nation Survey of August 2024. Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan followed the three with around 5% of approval votes for him. Though Amit Shah leads in the India Today Group’s latest bi-annual survey, his 25% approval rating marks a decline from the previous MOTN surveys in February 2024 and August 2023.
In the last two surveys, 28% and 29% of people had chosen Amit Shah among BJP leaders to succeed PM Modi.
The August 2024 edition of the India Today Mood of the Nation Survey also revealed that more than 31% of respondents from South India believe that Amit Shah is the best candidate to succeed PM Modi as the BJP’s candidate for prime ministership. Amit Shah’s 31% approval rating in South India is the highest among all regions, compared to 25% support nationwide.
Like in the case of Shah, the percentage of people backing Yogi Adityanath to succeed PM Modi has also declined. Yogi Adityanath’s support dropped from 25% in August 2023 to 24% in February 2024, with only around 19% of survey respondents now seeing him as a suitable successor to PM Modi within the BJP. About 13% of respondents picked Nitin Gadkari as a potential option. That said, with Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath’s ratings dipping, it naturally raises the question: who are the gainers?
The August 2024 India Today Mood of the Nation Survey indicates that Rajnath Singh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan have gained popularity as potential successors to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While Rajnath Singh has gained around 1.2 percentage points since August 2024, former MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has seen a significant jump, rising from 2.9% in August 2023 to 5.4% in the latest survey.
Chouhan’s rise as the preferred successor to PM Modi coincides with his appointment as Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare Minister in New Delhi. After joining the Modi 3.0 cabinet in June 2024, his popularity as a BJP PM candidate has seen a spike.
The recent India Today Mood of the Nation Survey has shown how rapidly Shivraj Singh Chouhan has caught up within a span of a year.
The August 2024 edition of India Today’s Mood of the Nation, a bi-annual pan-India survey, was conducted by CVoter between July 15, 2024 and August 10, 2024. The survey interviewed 40,591 respondents in all 543 Lok Sabha segments of the country. Another 95,872 interviews from CVoter’s regular weekly tracker were also analysed to identify long-term trends in vote and seat share.
