Delhi to vote for Assembly today
BJP confident of winning 45 seats as surveys point to AAP win
New Delhi: The national capital votes on Saturday to elect a new government, after a campaign in which the BJP pulled no punches against the ruling party in Delhi, AAP, which is eyeing another term in office. The Congress is the third main force in the contest in which 672 candidates are in the fray for 70 assembly seats.
If surveys are to be believed, the Aam Aadmi Party is all set to return to power in the national capital where polls to all 70 Assembly seats will be held on Saturday. But if one goes by grandstanding, then the BJP appears set to usher in a new chapter in Delhi and forming the city-state’s government on its own after 22 years.
Two surveys, one released on Wednesday and another earlier on Monday, clearly suggest that the AAP will not be able to retain all 67 seats it won in the 2015 elections, but will be able to form the government on its own. They give
10 to 14 seats to the BJP. But home minister Amit Shah has claimed his party will be winning more than 45 seats. The saffron party won in just three constituencies in
2015, where the Congress couldn’t retain one seat.
According to the ABP News-CVoter survey, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is predicted to win 42 to 56 seats. The IPSOS-Times Now survey, based on a sample size of 7,321 voters, says the AAP is likely to get anything between 54 and 60 seats, the BJP 10 to
14 seats, while the Congress may draw a blank or win, at best, two seats. Tight security measures were put in place, especially sensitive areas like Shaheen Bagh, for peaceful polling in which Delhi’s 1.47 crore voters will decide if Mr Kejriwal gets another term as chief minister for the development work done and promised, or the BJP, which campaigned on the “antiShaheen Bagh” nationalism pitch, will get a chance at power.