Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate outside the BJP state headquarters, as BJP is projected leading in the election results in the Delhi state, in New Delhi, India, February 8, 2025.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Majority of the exit polls seem to have finally gotten it right with their predictions this time around, as BJP gained a commanding lead and is seemingly close to ending AAP's ten-year reign over Delhi, and returning to power in the National Capital after 27 years.
Celebrations have already begun at BJP's headquarters in Delhi as the saffron party is currently in the lead, according to ECI trends, and is set to comfortably cross the majority mark. Meanwhile Union Minister J P Nadda has already left his residence and is headed towards the party office.
Top AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Atishi are trailing, while Manish Sisodia has conceded. Congress is yet to make a mark in the polls.
Eleven out of 19 pollsters had predicted that BJP will gain the majority in Delhi, including CNX, Axis My India, Today's Chanakya, Peoples Pulse, People’s Insight, JVC, Chanakya Strategies, PMarq, Poll Diary, DV Research and SAS Group.
Four of the surveys, including WeePreside, Mind Brink, Journo Mirror and KK Surveys and Strategies had given AAP the clear edge, while Sudarshan TV, Matrize, ZEE-AI and ICL predicted a close contest, with the former two giving BJP a slight advantage, while the latter two predicted that AAP will take a narrow lead.
During the last elections, The majority of exit polls were right in predicting NDA's victory in Maharashtra even though none of them could predict the scale of the Mahayuti's win, but most of them got the Jharkhand assembly elections wrong.
Similarly, the surveys had gotten the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections severely wrong too, along with the Lok Sabha election results.
When the surveys had initially come in, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the party respects the exit poll predictions. "I believe the people of Delhi made up their minds long ago that they wanted change," he added.
AAP's national spokesperson Reena Gupta had told PTI that exit polls have historically underestimated the Arvind Kejriwal-led party but in actual results, the party gains several times more than these projections.
"You look at any exit poll -- whether in 2013, 2015 or 2020 -- the AAP was always shown getting a smaller number of seats. But it got a greater number of seats in the actual results," Gupta said.
The Delhi election results are a massive win for these surveys, whose reliability has often been in question, even more so given their failures in the past few elections.
(With PTI Inputs)
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Delhi Assembly Election 2025 | Counting is underway for the Delhi assembly elections. The first of two state assembly polls this year sees a contest between AAP and BJP in the nation's capital. AAP decided to contest the polls alone, causing rumours of a rift in I.N.D.I.A. BJP, meanwhile, is hoping the liquor excise policy scam and pollution in Delhi will give the saffron party an edge over AAP. Kejriwal, on the other hand, has different plans with his demand for reservations for Delhi Jats. Congress will also be looking to make its presence felt and has not held back from attacking its own alliance partner. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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