The Indian voter seems to be singling out CEO-style leaders in the form of Sarpanch/Mayor, Chief Minister and Prime Minister while displaying any anti-incumbency sentiment.
This was revealed by the latest quarterly review of anti-incumbency sentiments based on a daily tracker poll conducted by CVoter for IANS.
The exclusive data analysis for IANS shows that Indian voters are more angry with CEO- style Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister than the local MP or MLA.
While this does reflect the mood of the typical voter, it doesn't always translate into anti-incumbency electoral verdicts as most elections in contemporary India have returned sitting governments to power.
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These sentiments expressed by the Indian voter also reflect how the leader has stated towering over the party or even the government.
The IANS CVoter Tracker poll and analysis shows that the anti-incumbency or anger is the highest against the Chief Ministers and state governments. For instance, at all all India level, 46.6 per cent of the respondents were most angry with the state government while 34.8 per cent were most angry with the Central government.
Asked further about anger levels with state governance, 24.6 per cent of the respondents expressed anger with the Chief Minister while 17.9 per cent expressed anger with the Prime Minister. In contrast, 11.2 per ce nt of the respondents expressed anger with the sitting MLA while just 5.1 per cent were unhappy with the sitting MP.
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In tune with this pattern of voter sentiments, 11.7 per cent of the respondents were angry with the Central government while 10.7 per cent expressed unhappy with the state government. The anti-incumbency and anger levels differ from state to state, but the pattern is becoming familiar.
Electoral battles and verdicts are increasingly becoming "personalised". For instance, even in a strong cadre-based party like the CPI-M, Kerala Chief Minister Pinnari Vijayan towered over the party and led it to a record-setting second successive assembly election victory in 2021.
