In the face of the exit polls that show BJP losing the Delhi Assembly elections, the party’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi on Sunday said that she will take responsibility for victory of defeat.
Counting of votes for the keenly contested Assembly polls will be taken up on Tuesday. The comments came even as Union minister and senior BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman met Ms. Bedi and spent over an hour at the former IPS officer’s Uday Park residence in south Delhi.
“A survey is always a survey. Also, I think we need to wait for the 10th for the final result. Because in some Assembly seats the margin is very less. So it could swing any way,” Ms. Bedi told reporters when asked to comment on the projections by the exit polls shown on TV channels.
Ms. Bedi had on Saturday also said that she would take “full responsibility” if her party suffers a loss.
“We will talk after the results come out on 10th. We’re hopeful that the results will favour us,” Ms. Sitharaman, the Union Commerce and Industries Minister, told reporters after her meeting with Ms. Bedi.
Ms. Sitharamam said that Ms. Bedi’s statement that she would take “full responsibility” if her party suffers a loss was her individual one. “She is the CM candidate and that statement is her own. She is being upfront about it,” the Minister said.
Two days ahead of the Delhi polls, BJP chief Amit Shah had contended that the election outcome cannot be a referendum on the functioning of the Modi government. Mr. Shah’s comments are in line with the remarks of Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Delhi polls. “It is true that it is an election for Chief Ministership. The election in a state cannot be a referendum (about Centre’s functioning). “While this is indeed true that the good work of the Government of India has its impact on elections, a state election cannot become a refrendum (on Centre’s functioning) because of that one thing.”
