Even a fortnight after the air strike by Indian Air Force fighter jets on terror camps in Pakistan’s Balakot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to dominate the popularity charts despite a dip in his rating from the peak witnessed during the first week of March, but his distant rival Rahul Gandhi has shown only marginal signs of recovery.

The latest ‘state of the nation’ tracker poll by CVOTER-IANS based on the data collected till March 14 showed that Modi’s rating has begun to slide from the high of around 60 per cent seen on March 4, 5, 6 and 7 to come down slightly to around 56.

In contrast, Rahul Gandhi’s rating, which had gone down to less than 3 per cent in the period when Modi’s had surged, has improved marginally to around 7 per cent though it remains much below around 20 per cent support he enjoyed in his best days in January 2019.

In terms of satisfaction with the Prime Minister’s work, there is not much change with over 50 per cent remaining in the very satisfied category. Though his net approval rating in the range of 60s in the first week of March has come down to 56 on March 14.

The gap between the two leaders has come down below 50.

A majority of the respondents (over 40 per cent) continue to believe that Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) can run better coalition.

The findings are based on a sample size varying between 4,000 and over 6,000.