DHAKA: Only 14 percent of voters believe Rahul Gandhi would make the best prime minister for India, a survey found on Thursday, just days after his endorsement by outgoing Congress premier Manmohan Singh.

The survey for The Times of India found 58 percent of respondents want Narendra Modi, the candidate of the main nationalist opposition party in this year’s general election, to be the next prime minister while 25 percent opted for the anticorruption champion Arvind Kejriwal, reports gulfnews.com.

The poll makes grim reading for the ruling Congress party, which had been hoping that the youthful Gandhi would significantly increase its apparently slim chances of victory in the election due by May.

Gandhi, 43, is expected to be named at a party meeting on January 17, next Friday, as Congress’s candidate for premier after the 81-year-old Singh confirmed last Friday that he would step down after the polls.

In a rare press conference, Singh said that Gandhi, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather all served as prime minister, has ‘outstanding credentials’ to lead the world’s largest democracy.

BDST: 1815 HRS, JAN 09, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor