AAP poised to win Delhi election: Exit polls

NEW DELHI, February 7: The AAP is likely to form a government in Delhi, half–a–dozen exit polls said on Saturday after assembly elections, giving the BJP the second spot. The Congress is expected to be wiped out.

The Aam Aadmi Party of former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who ran an aggressive campaign, is expected to win between 31 and a whopping 53 seats in the 70–member assembly, the surveys said.

The Bharatiya Jata Party could bag 17–35 seats. The Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 years until December 2013, would face a rout, either winning no seat or at best four seats.

Today’s Chakya gave 48 seats to the AAP, which ruled Delhi for 49 days after stunningly winning 28 seats in its maiden election 14 months ago, and 22 to the BJP.

The Congress, it said, would be crushed in the AAP–BJP battle.

Any party will need at least 36 seats to form the government in Delhi.

The ABP–Nielsen survey gave the AAP 39 and the BJP 28 seats. The Times Now–C–Voter survey said the AAP was poised to win 31–39 seats and the BJP 27–35.

The India Today–Cicero put the AAP tally at 35–43 seats and of the BJP at 23–29. The NDTV survey said the AAP could win 38 seats and the BJP 29.

The Axis–APM poll credited 53 seats to the AAP and 17 to the BJP.

Today’s Chakya exit poll also said that 53 percent of voters felt that Kejriwal was best suited to be Delhi’s chief minister, compared to 36 percent for BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi.

The AAP and the BJP were widely seen as the principal contenders for power in Delhi.

Today’s Chakya also said that all social classes in the capital — Dalits, Muslims, Brahmins, OBCs, Banias and Punjabis — had voted more for the AAP.

The percentage of Muslims voting for the AAP was as high as 71 percent.

Bedi, India’s first woman police officer who was picked by Prime Minister rendra Modi to lead the BJP’s charge in Delhi, disputed the exit poll findings, saying her party would win.

“We do not agree with the exit polls. We are confident the BJP will win in Delhi,” she told the media.

Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said his party was always confident of winning in Delhi.

He insisted that the projection of Bedi as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate had backfired. IANS