Sonia, Advani locked in a close fight for PM's post

New Delhi: Even before the 2009 General Election campaign has taken off, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi have squared off publicly. But a CNN-IBN CSDS poll suggests that it is not Rahul versus Modi, but Sonia Gandhi versus L K Advani that remains the real leadership battle of the coming General Elections.

The nationwide poll across 23 states asked BJP and Congress voters who their preferred prime ministerial choices were.

Among the Congress voters

* Rahul Gandhi ranked third with 13 per cent of voters supporting him as the prime minister.
* The incumbent, Dr Manmohan Singh ranked second with 23 per cent of the vote.
* Sonia Gandhi was way out in front with 46 per cent of the vote among Congress supporters.

Though Sonia Gandhi shunned the prime ministership once, she is still seen as the face of her party.

Manmohan Singh emerged ahead of Rahul Gandhi is also perhaps an evidence that five years in office have given him a strong public image, especially among the urban middle class.

Among the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) voters

There still seems to be a preference for the original big two who have guided the party for almost half a century.

* With 10 per cent of support among the BJP voters, Narendra Modi ranked third.
* With 27 per cent of support, Atal Behari Vajpayee was second.
* L K Advani ranked first with 31 per cent of the BJP voters wanting him as their party's prime minister.

Interestingly, this is perhaps the first time that Advani has emerged ahead of Vajpayee in a poll of this nature. This suggests that the BJP's core supporters have now finally recognised that Vajpayee era is coming to an end.

For Modi and Rahul though, there is reason to look positively to the future. They are clearly ahead of any other contenders at this stage within their respective parties. Perhaps, their war of words is only a trailer to the battle that may lie ahead in the 2014 General Elections.

Source: CNN IBN

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