India Behind The Lens (News Centre)

A recent analysis on Google trends shows that online search volumes for Narendra Modi have surpassed Rahul Gandhi. This shift occurred somewhere during March this year. The analysis convincing shows the growing interest behind Narendra Modi and the declining interest in Rahul Gandhi. When compared historically, search volumes for Rahul Gandhi have surpassed Modi’s current search volumes only on three occasions in the past 9 years.

Search Volume is an index calculated by Google based on the number of searches conducted on its search engine.

Given the upcoming Gujarat elections one can only expect the search volumes for Narendra Modi to increase. The above analysis is also in line with various polls which show Narendra Modi as the leading choice for Prime Ministership.

According to the India Today poll published in August 2012, Modi was the number one choice for becoming Prime Minister with 21% votes. A distant second was Rahul Gandhi with only 10% votes. He was followed by LK Advani (8), Manmohan Singh (6), Sonia Gandhi (6), Mulayam Singh (4), Mayawati (4), Jayalalitha(2), Mamta Banerjee(2), Nitish Kumar(2) and Sushma Swaraj(2). ABP News – Nielsen poll in August showed that 42% favoured Modi as the Prime Minister while 26% prefer Rahul Gandhi, 12% favoured Nitish Kumar.


This becomes even more interesting when we compare the above graph with another one where we compare search volumes for the Prime Ministerial candidates during the last general election.



This analysis shows that Manmohan Singh led LK Advani during the 2009 elections when Manmohan Singh won.

One needs to wait to see if these search trends translate into votes during the upcoming elections. If Mr. Google is to be believed, Mr. Modi is on the right track to 2014.