Corruption is one of the BJP’s major planks against the government of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The alleged irregularities in the privatisation of power supply in Delhi, for example, keep cropping up in the election speeches of BJP leaders.
Do Delhi’s voters think this government is corrupt? How does their opinion compare with the opinions held by people of some other states that went to assembly elections in the recent past? The HT-CSDS Survey tried to figure out where this government figures on the corruption index.
A small minority of 12 per cent people feel that the government is totally corrupt. A somewhat larger proportion of people — 17 per cent — hold the other extreme opinion: that the government is not at all corrupt. A majority — 57 per cent of Delhiites — say the government is “somewhat corrupt”. Fourteen per cent do not have an opinion on the matter, or do not want to express it.
Expectedly, the largest group of people who think this government is totally corrupt consists of those who say they will vote BJP in the elections. Twenty-two per cent of BJP voters say the government is very corrupt. Only 5 per cent of Congress voters agree; on the other hand, as many as 27 per cent of Congress voters feel the government is completely clean.
The government gets the thumbs up from the poor and uneducated — 20 per cent of people from each of these groups think it is not at all corrupt.
{{/usCountry}}The government gets the thumbs up from the poor and uneducated — 20 per cent of people from each of these groups think it is not at all corrupt.
{{/usCountry}}Opinion among the rich and educated is split almost equally: among the rich, 13 per cent think the government is very corrupt while 12 per cent think it is not at all corrupt; among the educated, the corresponding figures are 12 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.
The Sheila Dikshit government has impressed electors more than most other governments that faced elections recently. In a field of six — along with the BJP government in Himachal, the AGP government in Assam, the Left Front government in Bengal, the LDF government in Kerala and the DMK government in Tamil Nadu — this government has come first: satisfaction levels were lower with every other government. Twelve per cent of people rate this government as being ‘totally corrupt’; with the Himachal and Tamil Nadu governments, it was 17 per cent, with the Kerala government 28 per cent, with the Bengal government it was 29 per cent and with the Assam government, it was as high as 37 per cent.