Delhi Election 2020: Exit Polls give AAP another shot at power

At least 11 exit polls on Saturday predicted that Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP will return to power in Delhi for another term with a big margin, leaving BJP at a distant second position and Congress to another round of political irrelevance in the capital's political landscape.

Except for three, all other exit polls gave AAP more than 50 seats, with India Today-Axis poll giving the Kejriwal-led party a maximum of 68 seats while giving a minimum of 59 out of the 70 seats. The poll of exit polls conducted by two news channels also gave AAP more than 50 seats.

While the BJP won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi grabbing 56.56% of the votes, AAP has reversed its misfortune in the 2019 polls when it was relegated to the third position. Most of the exit polls also gave AAP more than 50% votes, up from 18.11% votes it garnered in Lok Sabha elections while BJP is predicted around 30-35% votes, its committed votes in the capital.

The exit polls also indicated that the Congress could not capitalise on its Lok Sabha poll performance when it had come second in five of the seven seats. In 2015 Assembly polls, AAP won 67 seats while BJP won the rest three seats. Congress could not win a single seat in 2015.

One of the highlights of the exit polls is the pointer that the BJP's high-octane campaign focussing on nationalism and polarisation did not have much impact on Delhi voters, as they chose AAP's theme of development and the work it did in the past five years.

BJP had unleashed a campaign blitzkrieg led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and bringing in firebrand Hindutva leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityananth and several Chief Ministers and former Chief Ministers like Devendra Fadnavis and Shivraj Singh Chouhan for wooing voters.

As the exit polls predicted another dismal performance, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari tweeted, "all these exit polls will fail. Save my tweet carefully. BJP will win 48 seats and form government in Delhi...please do not search for excuses to blame the EVM." AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said his party is going to win with a big margin.

India Today-Axis exit poll gave AAP the highest seats (59-68) while reducing BJP to 2-11 seats and if its prediction turn true, it would be a repeat of the 2015 polls.

ABP-CVoter predicted a worse case scenario of 49 and best case scenario of 63 for AAP while BJP is predicted to win 5-19. The Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat poll gave 48-61 seats to AAP while foreseeing 9-21 seats for BJP.

For BJP, it was Times Now-IPSOS (26), Sudarshan TV (24-28) and VDP Associates (18-26) which gave some solace. These three polls gave AAP 40-52 seats.

The TV9 Bharatvarsh-Cicero predicted 52-64 seats for AAP and 6-16 for the BJP while India News-Neta App gave AAP 53-57 and BJP 11-17 seats.

NewsX-Pollstart gave AAP 50-56 and BJP 10-14 seats, People's Pulse predicted 54-59 for AAP and 9-15 for BJP and News Nation 55 for AAP, 14 for BJP and one for Congress.

A poll of exit polls by NDTV gave AAP 53 as against Times Now's poll of polls which gave 55 while BJP got 16 and 14 respectively. Both these polls gave Congress one seat.