New Delhi: Many exit polls forecast a victory for the BJP in the Delhi assembly election held on Wednesday (February 5).
There are 70 seats in the Delhi legislative assembly and a party or coalition will need to win 36 seats to rule.
A number of exit polls predicted the BJP would comfortably cross the 36-seat mark at the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s expense.
The Matrize pollster predicted a closer fight between the BJP and the AAP but put the saffron party in the lead.
Most exit polls did not project more than one seat for the Congress, which contested the general election last year along with the AAP as part of the INDIA bloc but fought the AAP this assembly election.
A couple of exit polls – by the Mind Brink and Wee Preside pollsters – predicted that the AAP would win, PTI reported.
The AAP, which has ruled Delhi consecutively for ten years, has contested exit poll forecasts that say it will likely lose the election.
Voting closed at 6 pm on Wednesday and the Election Commission said that 57.7% of the electorate had voted by 5 pm. Provisional data provided by the commission said that the approximate turnout trend as of 10:30 pm was 58.83%.
The commission will announce the results on Saturday.
While exit polls are regularly released once voting in an election is complete, they do not always get the results right – a prominent example being the forecasts released immediately after the last general election.
In the 2020 Delhi assembly election, the AAP won 62 seats and the BJP eight, even as the latter has consistently polled more than 32% of votes in the state. The Congress did not win any seats that year.
