Smriti Irani ranks as top performing minister among Dalits, landless labourers

Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani has scored high in some critical demographics, including Dalits, landless labourers and low income groups, basically bottom of the pyramid, in a very critical vote in terms of electoral equations, as per an IANS-CVoter Survey.

Irani is among the top five ministers in the NDA supporters list and the opposition supporters list.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is the unanimous choice of NDA and opposition voters as the top performing Cabinet Minister in the Narendra Modi government, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is also the unanimous runners up among the ruling party and opposition supporters.

Rajnath Singh with a score of 8.36 is the number 1 Cabinet Minister among NDA voters and with a score of 7.03 is ranked number 1 among the Opposition supporters.

Gadkari has a score of 8.07 and 6.81 among the NDA and Opposition voters and is ranked number second in both the surveys.

There is a divergence after the ranking of the top two ministers. In the NDA camp, Home Minister Amit Shah is ranked number three with a score of 7.79 but fares not so well among the opposition supporters and is ranked last at 16 with a score of 5.53.

And there are some major surprises; Rajnath and Gadkari remain top 2 across the board; but in different demographics there are important stories to tell.

For example, the housewives have rated Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as top rated minister: Modi has got his formula right. There are strong chances that the 2024 verdict will be on tapped water in homes. Female voters are going to deliver that.

Two potent messages have emerged from the survey. Tone down rhetorical divisiveness and focus on good governance and performance.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is ranked 4th on both the lists. I&B and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur is ranked 4th in the Opposition supporters list and 6th on the NDA supporters list.

The survey was conducted on the completion of eight years of the Modi government.