Morning Consult, the company that tracks the popularity of political leaders remarked that PM Modi's popularity is the lowest in the past 1.5 years. PM Modi's satisfaction levels have fallen significantly in one year that's why many BJP leaders are worried about Brand Modi. Moreover, not only citizens, but the BJP party members are criticizing the government too. For example, Union Minister Santosh Gangwar wrote a public letter to UP, CM criticizing the COVID mismanagement in Bareilly. This should.t come as a surprise as 4 BJP's MLAs have died in Up due to covid. This isn't the first time that we've come across such criticism we came across such criticism during demonetization, farmer protest, and the migrant crisis. But it failed to affect PM Modi's popularity

But there's something unique about the 2nd wave of COVID-19 which could damage the image and popularity of PM Modi. Asim Ali a research associate at the Centre for Policy Research talked about this in his recent article. He highlighted three reasons

First the intentions

Be it 2016s demonetization or 2017s GST reforms, the members and supporters of the BJP did admit that the decisions affected their lives. But the news from the Bengal election campaigning was conflicting. People started regarding the Prime Minister as a political leader who prioritizes an election over the lives of the citizens

For example, PM Modi said during campaigning

“This is the first time I've seen such a massive gathering”. Meanwhile many were desperately searching for oxygen and hospital beds. These things damaged PM Modi's image

The pandemic has greatly affected a segment of our society. A segment that has an influence over our country and the issues covered by the media

Many believe that as the elections are three years away people would forget about the second wave. But that won't happen if the opposition parties don't press on these issues. Because that's how PM Modi won the 2014 elections. He accused Congress of Corruption, terrorism, and inflation 

We should forget that PM Modi is a once-in-a-lifetime politician. He's remained popular despite demonetization, GST, and CAA-NRC it wouldn't be surprising if he regains his popularity after the second wave 

But the COVID-19 pandemic is a once in a lifetime event. Would the opposition and Indian media be able to preserve our opinions?

This would decide the influence of the pandemic on PM Modi's popularity