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Mr M. G. Ramachandran, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is strongly supported by thirty-nine per cent of the people of Tamil Nadu. Mrs Indira Gandhi is strongly supported by twenty-nine per cent of the people. Mr M. Karunanidhi, the leader of the opposition and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is strongly supported by twenty per cent of the people. The relative support enjoyed by the different political leaders has not changed very much during the last year.

These are some of the findings of a statewide sample survey conducted by the students of the Statistics Department of the Madras Christian College during the second week of January 1982. A sample of about 1800 adults were carefully chosen taking special care that they represent the entire adult population of the State. One-fifth of the respondents were selected from tiny hamlets, half the number of respondents from villages and the others from small towns, large towns and cities. Student volunteers visited all the districts of Tamil Nadu to meet the respondents. The results were processed by the students with the aid of a computer. The computer results were checked by hand calculations.

With reference to each political leader, each respondent was asked to state whether he or she strongly supported the leader, or just had a good opinion of him/her, or strongly opposed him/her, or had not formed any opinion at all about the leader. Each respondent could have a good opinion of more than one leader but was allowed to strongly support only one leader.

Mr M. G. Ramachandran

Thirty-nine per cent of the respondents strongly support Mr M. G. Ramachandran and in addition, twenty-six per cent have a good opinion of him. In contrast to this, thirty-one per cent are strongly opposed to him and three per cent have not expressed any opinion about him. In the districts of Tirunelveli and Dharmapuri he has much greater support than in other districts but in Kanyakumari he has much less support. Among the poorest of the poor, viz., the agricultural landless labourers, forty-nine per cent strongly support him. He gets good support from different occupational groups. Even among the agriculturists who are landowners and tenant cultivators, thirty-seven per cent strongly support him. Among the professionals, such as teachers and doctors he is strongly supported by twenty-nine per cent. Taking the level of education into consideration, fifty per cent of the illiterates strongly support him but among the college-educated only twenty-four per cent strongly support him. Another thirty-five per cent of the college-educated, however have a good opinion of him. In other words MGR's backing is mainly from the masses, the poor and the illiterate and in addition he has supporters and well-wishers in all sections of the population.

Mrs Indira Gandhi

Twenty-nine per cent of the people of Tamil Nadu strongly support Mrs Indira Gandhi. This level of support is a little higher than last year's figure of twenty-six per cent, even though it is much less than the level of support that she used to enjoy about three years ago. The percentage of support went down significantly after she dismissed the state government led by Mr M. G. Ramachandran. In addition to the strong support that she has from twenty-nine per cent of the people, she has the goodwill of another fifty-one per cent who say that they have a good opinion of her. This cannot be explained merely by the fact that she has the general support of both the AIADMK and the DMK parties. Even when the congress(I) had an electoral alliance with only the DMK party, almost half the adult population of Tamil Nadu, in addition to her strong supporters, had a good opinion of her. Only sixteen per cent are strongly opposed to her. No other important leader has such a low percentage of opposition. In other words seventy per cent of the adult population of Tamil Nadu either strongly support her or have a good opinion of Mrs Indira Gandhi.

Mrs Gandhi's supporters are more or less uniformly spread in the hamlets, villages, small towns, large towns and cities. Thirty-four per cent of the women and twenty-six per cent of the men strongly support her. In other words she gets a little more support from women than men. Taking the level of education, she is strongly supported by thirty-six per cent of the college-educated and twenty-three per cent of the illiterates.

Mr M. Karunanidhi

  Twenty per cent of the people strongly support Mr M. Karunanidhi and fifty- five per cent strongly oppose him. Nineteen per cent have a good opinion of him. The level of support that he gets now is about the same as last year but there is a slight increase in the level of opposition.

Mr ' Cho ' Ramasamy

The well known writer, playwright and actor, Mr 'Cho' Ramasamy is strongly supported by two per cent of the people and in addition, thirty-five per cent have a good opinion of him. Only nine per cent are strongly opposed to him. However, thirty-two per cent have not heard of him and another twenty-two per cent not expressed any opinion about him. In Tirunelveli district fifty per cent have a good opinion of him and in Madurai district forty-five per cent have a good opinion of him. Taking the level of education, seven per cent of the college-educated strongly support Cho and in addition, fifty-five per cent have a good opinion of him. Five per cent have not heard of him. On the other hand, among those who cannot read and write, sixty-two per cent have not heard of him, no one strongly supports him, four per cent oppose him and eighteen per cent have not formed any opinion about him. Sixteen per cent of the illiterates have a good opinion of him.

Mr Kumari Anandan

The veteran political leader Mr Kumari Anandan is strongly supported by only one per cent of the people and in addition, twenty-five per cent have a good opinion of him. Seven per cent are opposed to him. However thirty-six per cent of the people have not heard of him and another thirty-one per cent have not expressed any opinion about him. Among the illiterates, sixty-four per cent have not heard of him and another twenty-two per cent have no opinion about him. In Kanyakumari district only two per cent have not heard of him but forty-four per cent have no opinion about him. An interesting thing is that thirty-three per cent of the respondents of Kanyakumari district were opposed to him, and two per cent strongly supported him. Twenty per cent have a good opinion of him. In other words, even though Mr Kumari Anandan is well known in the Kanyakumari district, he does not get much support there. In contrast to this, in Tirunelveli district, fifty-three per cent have a good opinion of him and three per cent strongly support him. Only four per cent are opposed to him. Seventeen per cent have not heard of him and twenty-three per cent have no opinion.

Political parties

The AIADMK party is strongly supported by thirty-nine per cent of the people, the Congress(I) by twenty-nine per cent, the DMK by twenty per cent, the Communist parties by three per cent and the Janatha by two per cent. All the other parties put together get a strong support of a mere two per cent. The remaining five per cent are not strongly committed to any political party.

The sample survey was conducted as part of the practical training for students in the collection and analysis of statistical data by the Department of Statistics of the Madras Christian College.