Among Scheduled Castes and Muslims, Rahul Gandhi is a more popular choice for the PM’s post than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an India Today Political Stock Exchange poll shows.

However, the poll shows PM Narendra Modi is far more popular overall with support from 52 per cent of respondents, compared to 33 per cent for the Congress president.

Forty-four per cent of Scheduled Caste voters prefer Rahul Gandhi, while 41 per cent want Narendra Modi to return as prime minister. The PSE poll shows support for Rahul Gandhi among SCs has risen by 10 per cent since January, while it has fallen by six per cent for PM Modi.

Sixty-one per cent of Muslims want Rahul Gandhi to be prime minister, up from 57 per cent in January.

Eighteen per cent of Muslims picked PM Modi — an increase of 1 per cent compared to January. (Click here to read the full report on the PSE poll.)

India will hold a Lok Sabha election in seven stages between April 11 and March 23 — the date on which votes will be counted.

The last voting day is May 19.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said on Sunday that around 900 million — or 90 crore — people had been registered as voters for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

These include 1.5 crore new voters in the 18-19 age group.

IN A NUTSHELL: As a crucial general election nears, an India Today PSE poll shows that among Muslim and Scheduled Caste voters, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is the front runner for the PM’s post.