New Delhi: With all exit polls predicting that the Aam Aadmi Party will return to power in Delhi, the BJP on Saturday claimed that the party’s supporters cast their votes late and would prove psephologists wrong.
There was a late surge in the voter turnout, doubling from around 30% at 3 pm to the eventual 61% that the Election Commission reported. Around 4 pm on Saturday, many BJP leaders began appealing to the people of Delhi to cast their votes. Later, after the voting percentage grew significantly the saffron party’s leaders claimed that exit pollsters had not surveyed these voters and hence their polls would be proven wrong.
Dear @bjp4delhi karyakartas & supporters, you’ve been working hard for #DelhiElection. I request you not to get disheartened by the #ExitPolls as polling is still on in some booths. Relax, sleep peacefully & wait for the results.#DilliChaleModiKeSaath
— Sunil Deodhar (@Sunil_Deodhar) February 8, 2020
It’s 57% now … When official figures come over the turn out will be 61%➕… Well done everyone . With near nonexistent @INCIndia & depleted volunteer strength of @AamAadmiParty this is very good turnout . The polls are wide open than expected .. 👍👍👍
— B L Santhosh (@blsanthosh) February 8, 2020
The party’s central leadership, including Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Vijay Goel, Prakash Javadekar, Hardeep Singh and Nityanand Rai held a meeting on Saturday evening, after polling closed. Emerging from the meeting BJP’s Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi also took the same line, saying exit polls are not ‘exact polls’. “Exit polls don’t have their math right. Also, the data is collected only till 4 or 5 pm… exit polls have got it wrong before as well,” she said, according to NDTV. “Our voters came late in the day and voted till evening,” she added.
Most exit polls predicted that AAP would comfortably cross the majority mark of 36 in the 70-member house and form the government. While the BJP is expected to improve its tally of 3 seats from the 2015 assembly elections, it is unlikely to pose a threat to the ruling party.
If the exit polls are correct, the results come as a blow for the BJP, which utilised all its strength to campaign in the national capital. Several Union minister, chief ministers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed rallies in Delhi, hoping to build on the BJP’s clean sweep of Delhi’s Lok Sabha constituencies in the 2019 general elections.