New Delhi: The AAP was ahead of its rivals and had the most chances of taking power in Delhi, exit polls said on Saturday evening after assembly elections ended with a record voter turnout of 67%. The polling percentage, however, was likely to go up as people who joined queues at polling booths before 6pm were being allowed to cast their ballots after the voting ended.

The India Today-Cicero poll, as of 3pm, gave the AAP 35-43 of the 70 seats, the BJP 23-29 and the Congress three to five seats. Any party will need at least 36 seats to form a government in Delhi.

Based on voting until 3pm, the CVoter exit poll gave the AAP 31-39 seats, the BJP 27-35 and the Congress two to four seats.

The Axis poll predicted a whopping 53 seats for the AAP, 17 for the BJP and zero to two seats for the Congress.

The voting followed a bitter campaign that was marked by the BJP and AAP trading accusations on a variety of issues, ranging from funding from dubious firms to AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s party to an advertisement issued by the BJP that caricatured Kejriwal and contained a reference to his caste that the AAP deemded derogatory.

The BJP, which has been out of power in the national capital for 16 years, initially banked on the “Modi wave” to carry it to power in the Delhi assembly but later roped in former IPS officer Kiran Bedi and named her as its chief ministerial candidate.

The AAP, which had been under a cloud after Kejriwal quit as chief minister in February last year when he failed to push through an anti-corruption law, surged back into the reckoning by appealing to youngsters and the middle class.

Observers have described the Delhi assembly polls as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but this has been rejected by the BJP.

The campaign by the Congress, which ruled for 15 years in Delhi before losing to the AAP in polls in 2013, was lacklustre and the party was banking on its traditional vote banks to maintain some sort of political presence in the city.

(With: Hindustan Times)

Delhi Elections Battleground: