New Delhi, Feb 7
A year after its 49-day stint
in power ended abruptly, Arvind Kejriwal's AAP was set to return to
power in Delhi, exit polls said Saturday after record voting in assembly
elections whose outcome is bound to have national ramifications.
Half-a-dozen
exit polls said the AAP, born in 2012 on the strength of an
anti-corruption movement, was likely to get between 31 and a staggering
54 seats in the 70-member assembly, relegating the BJP to the second
spot and virtually wiping out the Congress, India's oldest political
party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party could bag 17-35 seats. The
Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years until December 2013, would be
routed, winning no seat or at best four seats, the exit polls predicted.
A
happy Kejriwal, who ran an aggressive campaign over the months drawing
huge crowds, expressed gratitude to the people of Delhi for voting for
the Aam Aadmi Party in large numbers.
"(You are) so amazing," he tweeted. "(You) rejected politics of caste and religion. Hope final results (are) as per exit polls."
Putting
up a brave face, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi disputed
the exit poll findings and said she was confident her party would win.
"Wait till Feb 10," she said, referring to the day the votes will be
counted.
Senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said his party was headed for a landslide and could get more than 50 seats.
There
was no comment from BJP president Amit Shah, who along with Prime
Minister Narendra Modi had picked Bedi, India's first woman Indian
Police Service officer and a former Kejriwal colleague, to head the BJP
charge in Delhi, shocking the party's established leadership in the
capital.
A record 67 percent of Delhi's 13.3 million electorate
voted Saturday, with maximum polling recorded in low-income areas all
over the city where the AAP enjoyed maximum appeal.
Today's
Chanakya gave 48 seats to the AAP and 22 to the BJP. The BJP tally, if
correct, would be less than the 28 the AAP had got in its maiden
election 14 months ago. It said the Congress would be crushed.
A party will need at least 36 seats to form the government in Delhi.
The
ABP-Nielsen survey gave the AAP 39 and the BJP 28 seats. The Times
Now-C-Voter survey said the AAP was poised to win 31-39 seats and the
BJP 27-35.
The India Today-Cicero put the AAP tally at 35-43
seats and of the BJP at 23-29. NDTV said the AAP could win 38 seats and
the BJP 29.
The Axis-APM poll credited a stunning 53 seats to the AAP and 17 to the BJP.
Today's
Chanakya also said that 53 percent of voters felt that Kejriwal, an
income tax officer-turned-activist-turned-politician, was best suited to
be Delhi's chief minister. Bedi got only 36 percent approval.
It
also said that all social classes in Delhi -- Dalits, Muslims, Banias,
Brahmins, OBCs and Punjabis -- voted more for the AAP. The Muslim vote
for the AAP was as high as 71 percent.
Although the Delhi
election was a battle for the city state, it became high profile after
Prime Minister Modi addressed rallies asking people to reject the AAP
and its leader Kejriwal whom he called a Maoist.
Huge billboards all across the capital as well as the BJP's advertisement blitz urged voters to support Modi.
Former
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was the first among
senior politicians to mock at Modi after the exit polls.
"If your
slogan is 'Chalo chalen Modi ke saath' (Let us go with Modi) as we
heard ad nauseam on the radio, you can't claim the result isn't about
HIM," Abdullah tweeted.
Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and also the Communist parties urged people to vote for the AAP.
Former Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar also came out in favour of the AAP.
While
balloting was initially slow Saturday in middle and upper middle class
areas, thousands began thronging polling centres right from the time the
exercise began at 8 a.m.
When Kejriwal went to his polling
centre, he was virtually mobbed by voters. Midway through the balloting
that ended at 6 p.m., the AAP and the BJP claimed they were poised to
win.
Although the Congress was also in the race, it was squeezed out in the BJP-AAP battle.
Congress
president Sonia Gandhi was mellowed when asked about her party's
prospects. "Jo janta chahegi wahi hoga (What people want will happen)",
she said after casting her vote.
The elections took place a year after Kejriwal resigned after being the chief minister for 49 tumultuous days.
