"Party Will Cross 200 Seats In Municipal Elections": AAP After Exit Polls

After three exit polls on Monday predicted a clear win for the AAP in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls, the party said that the people have voted for the good work done by it while the BJP said it will do much better than the survey predictions.

Three exit polls on Monday predicted an end to the BJP's 15-year rule at the civic body. All the exit polls gave Congress less than 10 seats. The results of the polls to 250 wards of MCD will be declared after counting of votes on December 7.

AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said, "We think exit polls have always underestimated AAP voters because they are too shareef (gentlemen) to voice out their opinion due to goondaism of BJP workers."  "The party will cross 200 seats in MCD elections. Even exit polls are showing that AAP voters are voting based on the development work of Arvind Kejriwal government in the national capital. While BJP voters have only voted because of party loyalty. We think this tells a lot," he added.

AAP MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak said that people have voted for the good work done by the party.

"We are thankful to people and will continue the good work," he told PTI.

 BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said the party will be in a better position than what the surveys are showing.  "The final result will be different. Earlier, it was being said that the AAP will sweep the elections but now the picture has changed. I am sure the BJP will do better than what is being claimed by the surveys now. Whatever be the results, our party will accept it as the mandate of the people," Mr Tiwari said.

The Congress said that the exit surveys will be proven wrong on December 7, when the results are announced.

Anil Chaudhary, Delhi Congress president told PTI, "Those surveys will be proven wrong very soon. Our party has done the ground work and according to the internal survey of the party, Congress is winning the 60-70 seats. People trust our party." The BJP that has been ruling the erstwhile civic bodies since 2007 had won 181 of the total 270 municipal wards in the 2017 polls, trouncing the AAP and the Congress. The AAP won 48 wards and the Congress 30.

Earlier this year, the three municipal corporations in Delhi were unified by the Centre into MCD having 250 wards. Both the AAP and the BJP have fielded 250 candidates, while the Congress has 247 in the fray. The number of independents is 382. Among other political parties, the BSP contested the polls on 132 wards, the NCP on 26, the Janata Dal (United) on 22, and the AIMIM.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)