NEW DELHI: In a blow, Effects of PM Modi cross border strike drama againstPakistan is vaning, reveals latest polls on Indian elections.

The potential benefits accruing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rulingalliance from a spike in nationalist sentiment following recent clasheswith arch-rival Pakistan might be waning, results of a nationwide opinionpoll suggested.

Tensions with neighbouring Pakistan soared after a suicide bomb attack inthe Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) killed 40 Indian paramilitary police lastmonth. The bombing was claimed by a Pakistan-based militant group.

That led national sentiment on security and terror-related issues in Indiato peak at nearly 29 per cent in early March after India retaliated with‘airstrikes on a suspected militant camp’ in northern Pakistan, accordingto CVoter polling agency.

However, it has since waned to about 15 per cent, as tensions have cooled,the agency said, citing its daily tracker of national sentiment.

“A cliff-fall for (the) security narrative complicates BJP’s positioning asthis is one issue where BJP comprehensively dominates the Congress and infact entire opposition,” CVoter said, referring to Modi’s ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) that will face off against the main opposition Congressin the general election scheduled to begin on April 11.

Pollsters say the airstrikes and nationalist rhetoric had divertedattention away from socio-economic issues, including increasingunemployment and an agrarian crisis, that critics have often used tolambaste Modi’s policies.

The new poll numbers suggest those issues may be back on voters’ minds,CVoter said.

At election rallies in recent weeks, the BJP has played up the ‘airstrikes’and a subsequent anti-satellite missile test that Modi hailed as makingIndia a military space power. Some opposition parties criticised theanti-satellite test announcement as a political gimmick.

“The impact of mission Shakti (anti-satellite missile) test is anticipatedto show in the next few days,” CVoter said. – Agencies