Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party is preparing for its first election rally in Delhi to be addressed by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that it does not consider him a threat to its electoral prospects in the Delhi Assembly elections.
Mr. Kejriwal on Wednesday rejected the talk of Mr. Modi being a factor in the elections in the Capital. “The political fight for Delhi Assembly and the one for Parliament are two different things and the electorate in Delhi is aware of that vital fact. People know that Narendra Modi will not become the Chief Minister of Delhi. The image of Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel is of an Opposition politician who is in alliance with the corrupt ruling party in Delhi. He does not inspire confidence and trust in Delhi voters,” said Mr. Kejriwal.
The party also claimed that in their recent survey as many as 41 per cent voters want AAP to form the Government in Delhi and would like to see Mr. Kejriwal as their next Chief Minister.
The latest survey is being done by a private agency called Sisro Associates with technical assistance from party leader and psephologist Yogendra Yadav. It has a sample size of 35,000 and covers all the 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi.
The AAP shared the results of 22 constituencies, which it claimed, showed it to be ahead of the BJP and the Congress. However, a television survey released during the day predicted seven seats to AAP. The AAP’s own survey shows its vote share going up from 14 per cent in February this year to 27 per cent in August and 32 per cent in September.
The vote share and popularity of both the Congress and the BJP has gradually declined, as per the survey. While 25 per cent voters want incumbent Sheila Diskhit to continue, only 23 per cent wanted the BJP to form the Government.
When it comes to the Chief Ministerial candidate only 20 per cent voters wanted Mr. Goel as their Chief Minister, whereas almost twice as many – 41 per cent – wanted Mr. Kejriwal to hold the post, the AAP said.
Mr. Kejriwal claimed that in the New Delhi Assembly segment, from where he had announced his decision to contest the elections and which has over 30,000 households, he has already covered 23,000 of them through his door to door campaign.
“In the constituency, over 12,000 families have given donations to the party. We are confident that this group with around 35,000 to 40,000 votes are going to press the button on ‘broom’,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
Party leader Yogendra Yadav said the growing public support for the AAP shows that instead of only criticising the political class and being a fence-sitter, the public has decided to choose alternative politics.
