BJP Jittery Over Poll Prospects; AAP Predicts 51 Seats for Itself
NEW DELHI: Amidst most of the opinion polls giving an edge to the Aam Admi Party in Delhi elections, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said the electoral mandate in the national capital cannot be seen as a referendum on the performance of Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
"It is the election for the Chief Minister and not for the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi is not fighting assembly elections. It is a state election. You are going to elect a Chief Minister not a Prime Minister. It is the BJP versus the rest. That is all," Naidu said.
AAP Survey Results
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Meanwhile a survey by AAP on Wednesday predicted 51 seats for itself, 15 for the Bharatiya Janata Party and a paltry 4 seats for Congress and others in the Delhi Assembly polls as the campaign for the electoral battle reached its crescendo.
Giving details of the AAP survey, senior party leader Yogendra Yadav said 53 per cent voters in the city wanted Arvind Kejriwal as the Chief Minister while 24 per cent preferred BJP's Kiran Bedi for the post.
He said AAP is likely to get 46 per cent vote share while BJP will get 33 per cent and Congress 11 per cent. Others have been projected to get 10 per cent of the total votes.
The result of the AAP's internal survey came a day before campaigning for the February 7 polls comes to an end. The India Today-Cicero pre-poll survey yesterday projected AAP to get 38-46 seats while BJP was projected to secure 19-25 seats. The Congress was placed way behind with only 3-7 seats.
In the 'poll of polls' based on the results of five polls, AAP gets 34 out of 70 while BJP 32 and Congress 4.
Talking to PTI, Venkaiah Naidu, however, defended his party's aggressive campaign to win Delhi polls, saying the mood of the country now was to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister, who is trying to bring a transformation and Delhi being the capital, naturally acquires importance.
Dismissing that Delhi polls were Modi versus Arvind Kejriwal, he said, "Who is Kejriwal. He fought Parliamentary elections. See, what happened. The same thing is going to happen to him here also. There is no comparison between Modi and Kejriwal. Modi is the Prime Minister of India, who has been elected by people and then backed by nearly 400 MPs."
On the decision to name former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as the party Chief Ministerial nominee, he said it was a "considered decision taken unanimously" by the party leaders and rejected views that her nomination was a mistake.
Naidu also alleged that both AAP and Congress had earlier "ruled and ruined" Delhi together and will join hands again.
Terming as "absurd" Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh's remarks that there could be BJP's hand behind AAP funding allegations, he said, "Congress and AAP have very
good connections. They were together. "They have ruled and ruined Delhi.... That shows where does the Congress sympathy lie. They are trying to rescue AAP.It's an indication of things to come. People should see it. I say 'pyar kiya to darna kya'... Tell people that you are together".