DU survey predicts landslide victory for BJP

A survey by a Delhi University research centre has predicted a clean sweep for Bharatiya Janata Party with 214 seats in the municipal election. It puts Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) far in the second place with the Congress tottering behind.

DU’s Developing Countries Research Centre (DCRC) conducted a survey of 39,147 voters across 272 wards between April 14 and 21 to predict BJP’s landslide victory in all three municipal corporations.

It says the BJP is likely to get 50 seats in the east, 78 in north and 86 in south municipal corporation.

AAP is a distant second with 29 seats in total – seven in east, 13 in north and nine in south. Congress is likely to win 24 seats – five in east, 12 in north and seven in south. The results for the election will be declared on April 26.

Students from DU colleges went to different areas before the election to collect information from voters.

Data was obtained from voters on a single-page questionnaire.

“The results were complied and trends analysed by a research team at the Developing Countries Research Centre. A team of 305 members, including 272 students surveyed all the wards,” said Kumar Raajesh, media coordinator and a fellow at DCRC.

Kumar said this was probably the first and only survey for a municipal election conducted in any state in which all wards were covered.

Voting in the municipal election in Delhi ended on Sunday at 5.30pm with exit polls predicting a huge win for BJP in all three corporations.

Exit poll by ABP News gave the BJP 88 out of 104 seats in north, 83 out of 104 in south and 47 out of 64 in east.

In the overall tally, the ABP News poll gave BJP 218 seats out of 272 seats, 24 to AAP and 22 to Congress.

Another exit poll by Aaj Tak and India Today TV also predicted around 80 seats for BJP in north and south corporations and around 50 seats in east corporation.

AAP is far behind in second place in all three corporations, according to the poll, just ahead of the Congress.