Stage is all set for Delhi assembly polls, the ruling AAP will face polls with the hope to repeat its stellar performance in the last Assembly polls, while the BJP, which bagged all seven seats in the Lok Sabha election, will be aiming at expanding its vote share in the national capital.
But the recently released opinion polls have hinted that ruling Aam Aadmi Party under Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is set to return to power for a second consecutive full term in the Delhi Assembly.
The findings of these survey come as a reality check for the Bharatiya Janata Party which is hoping to turn its fortunes in the national capital where it has been unable to win elections since 1993.
While, Times Now-IPSOS opinion poll has predicted that Aam Aadmi Party will likely win around 54-60 of the total 70 Assembly constituencies. The BJP, on the other hand, is expected to pocket 10-14 seats, and the Indian National Congress, 0-2 seats, the survey predicts.
The ABP News-CVoter survey has predicted that Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will sweep the assembly polls with a whopping majority. As per the findings of the survey, AAP is projected to return to power in the national capital by bagging seats ranging between 42-56 in the 70-member assembly, crushing both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC) by a huge margin.
Even, the IANS-CVoter survey found that a majority of voters think that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will win the polls and that the image of local candidates will be their priority. 59.7 per cent voters chose the AAP, 24.1 per cent said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 2.4 per cent favoured the Congress and 0.4 per cent to others, while 13.4 per cent said they "can't say".
The ABP-CVoter poll predicted AAP may get a vote share of 45.6% and the BJP is expected to pull around 37.1%. Congress is expected to get only 4.4% while others will grab 12.9%. However, the Times Now-IPSOS poll gave AAP 52% vote share, BJP 34%, Congress 4% and others 10%.
The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to the polls on February 8. The results will be declared on February 11.
The Delhi Assembly elections are considered prestigious, given that it is the national capital and the centre of the Union government. The high-profile elections matters all the more to the BJP, which has in recent times been losing out in various Assembly elections.
In the outgoing Assembly, the AAP had won 67 seats which came down to 62 after five of its legislators were disqualified. It lost one more seat in a bypoll after the sitting AAP legislator quit on getting elected to the Punjab Assembly.
For the BJP, which has been out of the driver's seat since 1998, it looks like disappointment is in store yet again. In 2015, the BJP managed to win just three seats and later won a bypoll, taking its tally to four.
The AAP had stunned political heavyweights in the 2015 polls, bagging 67 of the 70 seats, leaving just three for the saffron party, while the Congress had drawn a blank. However, in the 2019 parliamentary polls, the BJP led the show, sweeping all seven seats.
The saffron party had amassed a whopping 55 per cent vote share, leaving the Congress on the second spot with 22.50 per cent votes and the AAP at a dismal low of 18.10 per cent votes. In 2019, the AAP won only one seat of the over 40 it contested across nine states and Union territories and its vote share in the national capital was the highest in the country.
