The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has emerged as a landslide winner in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi exit polls (MCD exit polls) conducted by India Today-Axis My India and Times Now.
MCD exit polls show that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stands a distant second in MCD elections and the Congress could be reduced to single digits.
AAP and party chief Arvind Kejriwal were counting on MCD elections victory to cement their hold over Delhi politics and raise their portfolio to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and PM Narendra Modi in 2024 general elections.
India Today-Axis My India MCD exit polls
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Of the 250 MCD wards, Kejriwal-led AAP is predicted to win 149-171 seats, according to India-Today Axis My India MCD exit poll.
The BJP is predicted to be a distant second with 69-91 seats, whereas the Congress has been driven to margins, predicted to secure fewer seats than even the Independents.
The Congress is predicted to win three to seven seats whereas 'Others', which include Independents, are expected to secure five to nine seats.
Delhi voted in MCD elections on Sunday. It was a direct contest between AAP and BJP and the BJP had deployed its who's who into the campaigning, ranging from top Delhi BJP leaders to BJP-ruled states' chief ministers, deputy chief ministers, and Union ministers. Yet the exit poll shows the BJP fell very much short of the desired numbers.
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Times Now MCD exit polls
Times Now exit polls predict similar MCD elections results for AAP, predicting it will win 146-156 MCD seats.
The BJP is expected to win 84-94 seats and the Congress is likely to be reduced to 6-10 seats. The others are predicted to win up to four MCD seats.
Boost to AAP, setback for BJP
The counting of votes will take place on Wednesday. If the final results are in accordance with the exit polls, it would be an embarrassment for the BJP, which had long ruled Delhi's civic bodies. In the previous Delhi civic bodies elections in 2017, the BJP won 181 of 270 wards.
Moreover, the MCD elections drubbing would be a setback to the BJP which was counting on winning the MCD to exert further pressure on the AAP, which is working towards becoming a direct challenger to BJP and Modi.
The India Today-Axis My India exit poll predicted the AAP's vote share as 43 per cent, the BJP's at 35 per cent, and that of Congress at 10 per cent.
