A file photo of Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari
Even as all the major exit polls have predicted a comfortable victory for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is betting big on the surge in voter turnout in the last two hours before the voting ended on Feb 8.
According to the final voter turnout data released by the Election Commission on Sunday, almost a day after polling ended, sixty-two per cent of Delhi’s voters turned up at the booth to cast their ballots. Only 42 per cent of the voters had cast their ballot till 4 PM, according to EC’s statistics on Saturday, triggering speculation about the abysmally low turnout compared to the last assembly election in 2015, when 67.47 per cent voters had shown up for voting.
BL Santosh, BJP’s general secretary in charge of organisation, noted on Twitter on Sunday that 17 per cent of the voters had come out and voted in the last two hours of polling.
“The 62.59 per cent polling (figure) in the Delhi elections 2020 makes it (the election fight) more open, contrary to exit polls. The polling is only lesser by 5 per cent compared to the last assembly polls and two per cent more than last parliament elections,” said Santosh.
He further attributed AAP’s apprehensions about “EVM disturbance” to fears of an impending defeat, despite the results of the major exit polls, all of which have predicted another term for Arvind Kejriwal as Delhi’s chief minister.
In an interview he had given to a news channel, Santosh has also noted that the exit poll findings only take into account the sentiments of voters till 4 PM, leaving the way voters cast their ballot in the last few hours to anyone’s imagination.
Ditto is the hope of BJP’s Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari, who has maintained since Saturday that BJP would win more than 48 seats in the election.
“From 3 pm to 7:30 pm, there was huge voting in favour of BJP,” Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari was quoted as saying in media reports.
The sentiment about BJP defying the exit poll results have been echoed by Kapil Mishra, who has contested on a party ticket from the Model Town Constituency.
“The BJP is forming the government tomorrow,” Mishra tweeted on Monday.
On Saturday, hours after the voting ended, BJP’s Information and Technology (IT) Cell chief Amit Malviya also reckoned that the final turnout figure of 62.5 per cent made the election much more “interesting.”
A poll of polls, the average of 10 major exit polls conducted on the voting day, has awarded 52 seats to AAP, seventeen to the BJP and just a single seat for the Congress Party.
