A survey conducted by The Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), an advocacy group mentored by political strategist Prashant Kishor has revealed that 48 percent of the over 57 lakh people from 712 districts want to see Narendra Modi as the leader who will take the nation's agenda forward. The survey was done in 55 days and had nominated 923 leaders for the respondents to choose from.
Narendra Modi is followed by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who received 11% votes while Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stood at the third place with 9.3 percent votes. While former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav bagged the fourth place with 7 percent votes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati got 4.2 percent and 3.1 percent votes, respectively.
Some of the top priority issues cited by the respondents of the survey include women's empowerment, farmers crisis, economic inequality, student problems, education in health and hygeine, sanitation, communal harmony and basic education.
In the survey, the respondents have also listed non-political personalities that should join politics including Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Anna Hazare. The National Agenda Forum was launched by the Indian Political Action Committee in July with an aim to mobilise about one crore citizens to formulate an actionable agenda for citizens to choose their leaders online in the 2019 elections.
An official from the organisation told news agency IANS that the National Agenda Forum was a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary year. The forum has been formed to resurrect the conversation around Gandhi's 18-point Constructive Programme for Independent India and use it to reimagine and co-create India's priorities to formulate an actionable agenda for the present.
(With inputs from IANS)
