Around two-thirds of the respondents in a survey want Narendra Modi to become the country’s next prime minister, and they believe that the National Democratic Alliance can win 360 seats if Lok Sabha elections are held today. According to the Mood of the Nation survey conducted by India Today and research firm Karvy, there is “widespread support” for decisions such as the demonetisation of high-value currency and the Indian Army’s surgical strikes along the LoC with Pakistan.

The survey is based on 12,143 interviews (53% in rural areas and 47% in urban) conducted in 97 parliamentary constituencies and 194 Assembly seats.

Modi’s score has grown by 15 percentage points, the highest in the past six editions of the survey, India Today reported. The NDA government’s Swacch Bharat Abhiyan is its most popular initiative, with 27% of the respondents endorsing the scheme. The cleanliness campaign is followed by the Jan Dhan Yojana and Digital India, with 16% and 12% of the respondents endorsing them. Moreover, 62% feel that Modi and his government have “handled relations with Pakistan satisfactorily or handled it well”.

Furthermore, 53% of the respondents said that the Reserve Bank of India’s image and credibility had been affected by demonetisation and the confusion over the rules for its implementation. Some 55% believe that the move could have been executed better. Only 18% said the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies had disrupted the functioning of both Houses of Parliament during the Winter Session, where demonetisation was heavily debated.

In terms of a political alternative to the prime minister, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was the first choice of 28% of the survey’s respondents. While Bihar’s Nitish Kumar adjudged the best-performing chief minister, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s ratings have fallen by half in the last six months, according to the analysis. Only 11% of the respondents believe that the Aam Aadmi Party chief is the best possible leader for a grand alliance between Opposition political parties.

Some 68% of the respondents agree that it is necessary for the government to lower income tax rates in the upcoming Union Budget, while 61% of them said it was necessary for the NDA government to focus its efforts on reforming political funding.