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A recent survey conducted by Universiti Selangor (Unisel) seems to conform to a nationwide trend of increased Indian support for BN.

According to study findings made by the university’s Education and Social Sciences Faculty, the Indian community bucks the trend of increasing support for Pakatan Rakyat which was prevalent among Malays and Chinese.

In a survey, 69 percent of Chinese respondents and 61.6 percent of Malay respondents, all from Selangor, opined that Pakatan would retain Malaysia’s richest state.

However, the Indian community has only 50 percent confidence that Pakatan will retain the seat, the study shows.

This trend is further solidified when the researchers carried out a survey on caretaker Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s approval ratings among Selangorians.

While 51.2 percent of Malays and 34.5 percent Chinese respondents were approving of Najib, a whopping 71.6 percent of Indian respondents were impressed by Najib’s leadership qualities.

The study was carried out among 1,015 respondents from Selangor across different demographics.

NONE Dr Muhammad Shamsinor Abdul Azzis, who carried out the study, said that the findings tallied with a nationwide belief that Indian support has returned to the BN fold.

"That's maybe because Pakatan Rakyat did not fulfill their aspirations," he noted.

"Back in 2008, if I was reading Harakah Daily , Indian men used to come to me and ask me if they could read the paper as well, but I don't see such spirit among the Indians any longer," he added.

Indians also have the least amount of confidence in the possibility of Pakatan forming the next federal government.

While 52.3 percent of Malay respondents and 53.5 percent of Chinese respondents thought Pakatan stood a chance of take over the country's administration, only 37.1 percent of Indian respondents believed so, while an overwhelming 62.9 percent of the latter believing that BN will retain federal power.

Overall though, the study found that Pakatan and BN are pretty much neck-to-neck on the race to the federal level, with 49.4 percent of all respondents believing in a BN-win while 50.6 percent believed Pakatan will finish ahead.

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