Delhi elections: Most exit polls place BJP ahead of AAP
The votes will be counted on Saturday.
Several exit polls on Wednesday projected the Bharatiya Janata Party to be ahead of Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the Assembly election.
The predictions were made as the polling for the Assembly election in the national capital concluded earlier in the day. A provisional voter turnout of 57.7% was recorded till 5 pm.
The votes will be counted on Saturday.
The Delhi Assembly has 70 members. A party or a coalition requires 36 seats to form the government.
An aggregate of exit poll predictions compiled by NDTV showed that the BJP could win 43 seats and the AAP 26.
Pollster Chanakya Strategies predicted that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party may win 25 to 28 seats, and the BJP may emerge victorious in 39 to 44 places. Matrize predicted a closer contest, giving 32 to 37 seats for the AAP and 35 to 40 seats for the BJP.
On the other hand, another pollster, Mind Brink, predicted 44 to 49 seats for the AAP and 21 to 25 wins for the BJP.
Pollsters were unanimous in predicting that the Congress will not make a significant headway, winning zero to three seats.
Delhi exit polls
Poll | AAP | BJP | Congress |
---|---|---|---|
Chanakya Strategies | 25-28 | 39-44 | 2-3 |
Matrize | 32-37 | 35-40 | 0-1 |
P-Marq | 21-31 | 39-49 | 0-1 |
Mind Brink | 44-49 | 21-25 | 0-1 |
JVC | 22-31 | 39-45 | 0-2 |
The Aam Aadmi Party has been in power in the national capital since 2013, except for a year of president’s rule between 2014 and 2015.
In September, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal stepped down as the chief minister and was replaced by party leader Atishi. Kejriwal said that he will return to the post only after voters have expressed their support for him in the Assembly polls.
Kejriwal’s resignation came a week after he was released on bail in the Delhi liquor policy case. He had been arrested in March ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
In the 2020 polls, the AAP won 62 seats with a 53.8% vote share. The remaining eight seats were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which secured 38.7% of the votes. With a 4.3% vote share, the Congress failed to win any seat.
The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress are contesting the polls separately even though they are members of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the AAP-Congress alliance lost all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi to the BJP.
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