Rajdeep Sardesai is no stranger to being trolled. On Thursday evening, the senior journalist found himself occupying Twitter's number one trend yet again. The occasion this time was the Mood Of The Nation (MOTN) survey released by India Today in partnership with Karvy Insights and its findings. We'll come back to Rajdeep again in a bit. But first, a bit about the survey.

MOTN is a bi-annual survey conducted by India Today in an attempt to gauge the political sentiment across the country. In this edition, a total of 12,232 interviews were conducted across 97 parliamentary and 194 assembly constituencies across 19 states between January 3 and January 13 to understand which party would come to power if the 2024 General Election was held today.

MOTN survey highlights

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would win 321 seats as compared to the 353 seats it won in 2019

NDA's vote share is likely to be 43% as opposed to 45% in 2019

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to show no improvement from its 2019 tally

 73 % Indians are satisfied with PM Modi's management of the Covid-19 crisis

PM Modi's approval ratings stand at an impressive 74% 

With that context, let's shift focus back on Rajdeep who was 'slightly baffled' by one data point in particular. 

66 % say income decreased during COVID times, 19 % say they lost jobs. And yet 67% say central govt has handled economic fallout of the pandemic well. Slightly baffling but then that’s what the poll says. Faith in govt remains high. #MoodOfTheNation @IndiaToday

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) January 21, 2021

That's not all. During the course of the discussion surrounding Covid-19 and its response, Rajdeep wondered why healthcare workers weren't particularly keen on getting vaccinated. To which he was met with this response from top cardiologist Dr. Naresh Trehan, who also happens to be Aroon Purie's (Rajdeep's boss and promoter of the TV Today Group) brother-in-law. 

Now its Dr Naresh Trehan turn to scold @Sardesairajdeep on his own show Dr Trehan was speaking on Unnecessary Political controversy created on the Corona Vaccine but Rajdeep kept interrupting only to get scolded 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/g9yUDcTXiX

— Rosy (@rose_k01) January 21, 2021

Twitter junta obviously had a field day thanks to this flashpoint between the two. Not to mention the delight of the pro-government section that made merry (at Rajdeep's expense) on account of the survery's results.

Today, Rajdeep gets scolded by Dr Naresh Trehan. I think there is no one on his show except Rhea Chakraborty who has not scolded him.

— saket साकेत ಸಾಕೇತ್ 🇮🇳 (@saket71) January 21, 2021

In Modi's high approval ratings, Rajdeep sees his own failures. How irrelevant and ineffective he is. He sounds like the losing captain giving a post match interview.

— Ram (@ramprasad_c) January 22, 2021

Interestingly, Prof Shamika Ravi reminded Rajdeep of another such instance of him being startled at the findings of India's Today's MOTN survey.

Déjà vu! How can you be repeatedly surprised by your own surveys, Rajdeep? Exact same thing happened 6 months back when you found the numbers "bewildering". May I suggest, the next time just add a few open-ended questions to the questionnaire. It might not be such a deep mystery. https://t.co/0ab9y4rvks

— Prof Shamika Ravi (@ShamikaRavi) January 21, 2021

Here's the clip from the MOTN survey in August 2020, when Rajdeep was 'absolutely bewildered' to learn that the Indian public stood firmly behind PM Modi despite the economic hardship triggered by the lockdown.

Who handled the economy better - PM Narendra Modi or Manmohan Singh? This is what #MOTN2020 survey shows. @ShamikaRavi, Sr Fellow of Brookings Institute, decodes the findings. #MOTN2020 LIVE at https://t.co/4fqxBVUizL
(@RahulKanwal & @sardesairajdeep) pic.twitter.com/xRAVq0kMyz

— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) August 7, 2020 

Apart from being roasted for expressing shock at India Today's MOTN surveys (past and present), Rajdeep has been right-wing Twitter favorite whipping boy for a while. From being slayed by Smriti Irani to the high-profile Sushant Singh Rajput death case, where he copped serious flak for his comments, Rajdeep continues to be at the centre Twitter rage.

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