India’s embattled Congress-led government, plagued by corruption and slowing economic growth, is still the public’s choice to win a national election, an opinion poll said Saturday. Despite mounting popular discontent over a string of graft scandals, 38 percent of Indians would vote for the ruling coalition led by the Congress party, instead of the opposition led by the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“In the absence of a credible alternative, the unhappy public turns back to the ruling party,” explained social scientist Yogendra Yadav of the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies which conducted the “State of the Nation” poll last month.
