Former popular Likud minister Moshe Kahlon commissioned a survey of potential voters, which showed that a party at his lead would win 20 seats in the next Knesset, The Jerusalem Post learned Wednesday.
The fact that Kahlon commissioned the poll indicates that he could be considering rejoining the political arena, despite stating earlier that he wanted to retire from politics. That said, polls that spotlight one person are often disproportionately favorable to that person.
Conducted by the Rafi Smith group, the poll also found that were he to lead the party together with popular former Kadima head Tzipi Livni, the party would win 26 seats, according to Army Radio.
Kahlon, who was the communications minister in the last Knesset, announced that he was quitting politics earlier this month, but said he would stay on with his Likud in the transition to the next election "so it can continue to lead."
"I grew up with Likud values," Kahlon said earlier this month, lauding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and emphasizing that without him, he would not have been able to about the reforms that he did. Kahlon led reforms that drastically cut prices for cellular phone services.
In another Rafi Smith survey, Kahlon ranked as one of Likud's most popular ministers. He received the highest score of all Likud ministers in a Smith Research poll asking 500 people to rank the performance of the party's ministers on a scale of one to ten.
Labor party chair Shelly Yacimovich welcomed rumors of Kahlon's return. "First of all, I think that Kahlon is an excellent representative," she told Israel Wave Radio. "I think that Kahlon's exit from the Likud party is significant. I very much want to see him in the political life, and I'm saying this with honesty. I'm not saying this out of any political consideration, or out of concern for my party."
She added: "Kahlon's entrance into the political realm would serve exactly the kind of thing I'm fighting for: ending the irrelevant dichotomy between the political Right and Left- there are no more blocs anymore."
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report