Yoo Seung-min, who involuntarily resigned yesterday as the floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party under the pressure of the pro-Park faction of the party, jumped to the second place overnight in the popularity rating of the Presidential hopefuls of the ruling camp, next only to Saenuri Chairman Kim Moo-sung.
According to a survey conducted by Real Meter at the request of JTBC TV on July 8, 2015, Yoo scored 16.8% of support only after Kim Moo-sung who got 19.1%--merely 2.3% difference.
Yoo by far (more than three times) outstripped former Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo (6%), former Saenuri Chairman Chung Mong-soon (5.1%), Jeju Special Province Governor Won Hee-ryong (3.1%), incumbent Gyeonggi Governor Nam Kyung-pil (2.5%) and Gyeongsangnam-do Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo (2.3%).
Yoo's 'super high jump' is more than 3 times the score (5.4%) he got on June 25, 2015 when President Park Geun-hye severely rebuked him literally as a 'political traitor.'
Leaving the post of the Saenu Party floor leader, Yoo said, "I have been trying to keep the post to safeguard the solemn values of the Clause 1 of the Article 1 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Korea, which states: "The Republic of Korea is a democratic republic."