New Delhi: The latest ‘Mood of the Nation’ (MOTN) poll done by C-Voter has found that 47% of 1,16,644 Indians surveyed think “democracy is under threat”, versus 42% who do not think so. This reverses the numbers arrived at by the same survey in the January poll.India faces a “poly-crisis” comprising “unemployment, inflation and Gen Z discontent”. writes that the impact of this on the “popularity of the prime minister and the ruling party shows up vividly in the latest India Today-C Voter biannual Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll.”According to the survey, if a Lok Sabha election were to be held now, the BJP would fall 11 seats short of a simple majority on its own. “That is a drop of 26 seats from the January MOTN, which had projected a far more comfortable tally of 287 for the BJP. More disconcertingly for the party, the poll indicates that without its victory in Bengal, its numbers in the latest MOTN would have plunged even further.”It hastens to add that there is “no immediate threat to the Modi government. The NDA’s tally is down 26 seats from the January 2026 MOTN, but it still commands a healthy 326 seats.” This tally it has arrived at is more than the actual tally after the 2024 general elections of 293 seats only.But looking at the numbers in detail, Narendra Modi’s popularity is on the decline from 2024, lower than the February 2024 MOTN, and only at 49%. Rahul Gandhi is at 27% approval ratings but his graph is on the rise. This is also something the CSDS surveys indicated before intimidatory tactics have nearly shut down Lokniti.Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a less-sought-after PM than before while the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi is seen by more people as a PM candidate than before.Modi’s performance as PM has shrunk, with fewer persons saying it was “outstanding”. Less than one-third do so now, below the numbers since last time. While the proportion terming his performance as ‘outstanding’ has fallen from 35.6 per cent to 30.1 per cent.Overall, those rating his performance as ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ have declined by 5.7 percentage points since the January MOTN, from 57% to 51.3%.Tamil Nadu CM Vijay enters the sceneThe Tamil Nadu chief minister and TVK leader, C Joseph Vijay is the new entrant on the scene with 9.2% feeling he is best suited to be PM, this is behind Modi (48.7%) and Rahul Gandhi (27.1%).On leading the opposition too, Vijay is seen as a suitable leader after Rahul Gandhi, a distant second – but ahead of Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav, usually rated higher on the MOTN poll.Ram temple chanda chori hurts ModiThe Ram temple embezzlement scandal or the ‘chanda chori’ (donation theft) scam, has nearly half, or 46.6 per cent of respondents saying it has negatively affected their view of both, the Modi government at the centre and the Adityanath-led BJP government in Lucknow. A very large percentage, 43.2 per cent—almost every second respondent surveyed – have said that corruption has increased under the NDA. The BJP-led alliance is in its 13th year of government now.Unemployment and inflationThe BJP’s performance on this gets a big thumbs down with price rise seen by 23 per cent as its biggest failure and unemployment seen by those surveyed as the biggest problem India faces.Political stability is seen by 13% (the largest) as the coalition’s biggest achievement.Fifty-six per cent see Modi government’s economic policies as benefitting big business. The opposition’s targeting of Modi government as being one of cronyism has either landed and been impactful or is reflective of the popular mood. This is something the Modi government will take non-seriously at its own peril.PM Modi narrowly edges Manmohan Singh on perceptions about economic management, and the gap is narrowing. The poll finds 47% rate Modi as higher and 44% root for Dr Manmohan Singh’s economic management.Income prospects, or how people see the state of their future incomes are subdued, with fewer people – only 24% – expecting near-term improvement. And 64% think it will worsen or remain the same.Young/Gen -Z ‘anger and angst’This is where discontent against the government is sharply visible amongst those surveyed.Psephologist and now political activist Yogendra Yadav has pointed out here that the MOTN survey does an averaging of sentiment and answers over the past six months as 25, 184 respondents were interviewed after the Youth protests (between July 1 and August 25) and 91,795 odd interviews from the C-Voter tracker were done across 24 weeks before, and an average is sought to be presented.This, asserts Yadav in an open note, creates a bias in the MOTN, as it “misreads and misleads by systematically overstating BJP’s votes and seats”. Be that as it may in the overall political numbers described above, the anxiety plaguing the young, whom India Today also terms as filled with “anger and angst” cannot be airbrushed.Over 80% of Gen-Z says the survey are “weighed down by thoughts of an uncertain future.”Seventy per cent say the unemployment situation is serious in India. Nearly half of 46% of the young surveyed say India is not moving in the right direction. An overwhelming 67% feel that government exams are not conducted fairly.Fifty-three per cent feel that the NEET paper crisis handling by the Modi government was either poor or very poor.The government’s handling of the NEET crisis has damaged its reputation significantly, with less than 35% finding it ‘good’ or ‘very good’. The largest single category is of those who found the handling ‘very poor’, with 35%.An overwhelming two-thirds – 67% of those surveyed – sympathise with the Jantar Mantar protests amongst young respondents.Only 14% of respondents said they were confident in the recruitment tests conducted in India.Forty-two per cent want the CJP to remain a pressure group, but if it turned into a political party, 40% said they would vote for it.42% say the Cockroach Janta Party should remain a pressure group, but 40% separately said they would vote for the party if it contested elections.The methodology for this poll is CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviews) of adult respondents across all segments, writes India Today. This poll “was conducted between July 1 and August 25, interviewing 25,184 respondents covering all Lok Sabha segments across all states. In addition to these samples, 91,795 interviews from C Voter’s regular tracker data over the past 24 weeks, were also analysed for the long-term trendline in projections calculation of votes and seats. Thus, the opinion of a total of 116,644 respondents was considered for this MOTN report.”In another C-Voter poll done on the mood and sentiment in Gen Z, of 1,270 respondents aged between 18-35 years on August 8, about two weeks after the Jantar Mantar protests ended, the results show that more than half of them, 53% have Employment, Education and Healthcare as their electoral priorities.Respondents told C-Voter that issues leaders raised mattered to them when they voted. The issues people considered important, highlighted above, were also more than personal concerns but had electoral consequences.The were not mere matters of concern but were ‘issues’ that have electoral consequences. When asked “what’s the primary basis for deciding their vote, nearly a third of the youngsters said ‘Issues raised’ [by the parties],” said C Voter. The margin of error in this poll is 5%, give or take.