Gujarat’s Patidar voters not excited by BJP CM Bhupendra Patel
PRASHNAM INSIGHT #41
Gujarat witnessed a sudden change of its Chief minister this week. There were no visible signs of the incumbent CM losing the trust of party MLAs or some of the fellow ministers revolting against him. Yet, the CM who had just completed 5 years in office had to make way for a rank newcomer.
Prashnam decided to ask people of Gujarat what they thought of this development. A survey asking the following 2 questions was conducted hours after the new CM was selected.
Q1: Who among these BJP leaders should be the CM candidate of Gujarat in next election?
1: If you think Vijay Rupani should be the next BJP CM, press 1.
2: If you think Pradipsinh Jadeja should be next BJP CM press 2
3: If you think Bhupendra Patel should be next BJP CM press 3
4: None of the above or no opinion
Q2: What caste do you belong to?
1: ST
2: Patidar/Patel
3: OBC
4: Muslim
5: Kshatriya/Other Hindu
32% of voters were not excited by any of the choices in the survey and chose None of the Above/No Opinion.
But 30% of overall voters in Gujarat preferred Vijay Rupani as next CM candidate.
38% of Patidar voters said they were not excited by any of the choices. Patidars were the most unexcited group among those surveyed after Muslims which is perhaps understandable since they are unlikely BJP voters anyways. So, among likely voters of BJP, Patidars are the most agnostic of an unknown Patidar as CM candidate while STs OBCs, Kshatriyas and other Hindus seem to have clearer choices among the names mentioned.
Read the full report in The Print here.
The raw response data is available here.