Victory for AAP, say opinion polls

BJP may fall behind; Cong faces rout

Recent opinion polls have given the edge to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the February 7 Delhi Assembly elections.  

The AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are going all out to woo voters who will exercise their franchise for the second time in 13 months. The counting will be on February 10.

Opinion polls published in the last two days showed that the AAP would get a majority in a House of 70 MLAs or emerge as the single-largest party, leaving questions on the “winnability” factor of Modi's campaign. After he assumed power in May, the BJP has not lost any Assembly election.

However, opinion poll results now predict the possibility of the BJP falling behind in Delhi. The BJP's Kiran Bedi trails Kejriwal in all opinion polls as the favourite chief minister candidate.

The India Today-Cicero poll gave the AAP a comfortable lead, predicting 38-46 seats, while the BJP is poised to get 19-25 seats. The Congress may end up with 3-7 seats. It had eight in the outgoing Assembly. Kejriwal is the preferred choice for the chief minister’s post with 44 per cent votes, while Bedi lags behind with 35 per cent.

The ABP-Nielsen poll gave the AAP 35 seats, one less than the simple majority, while the BJP is close with 29 seats. The Congress may get six seats and provide support to the AAP to form the government. In this poll, Kejriwal got an endorsement from 48 per cent respondents, while Bedi had the support of 42 per cent.

The Economic Times-TNS poll gave the AAP 36-40 seats and the BJP 28-32. The Congress may get three seats. The Hindustan Times poll also gave the AAP 36-41 seats and the BJP 27-32. The Congress may get 2-7 seats.

Opinion polls conducted by India TV-CVoter and The Week-IMRB had given the BJP the edge over the AAP. They had given the BJP a majority while the AAP was given 28-29 seats. The polls predicted between four and five seats for the Congress.