The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday continued to maintain that it would form the next government in the Capital.
This, even as Sunil Yadav, the candidate fielded by it against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi constituency, declared he would not contest another election if he lost.
“Gratitude to Mr. Narendra Modi, Mr. Amit Shah, Mr. J.P. Nadda and the entire organization for reposing their faith in me. Mr. Kejriwal will lose New Delhi, that is for sure. If this does not work out, I will never contest another election and will associate myself only with organisational matter for life [sic],” Mr. Yadav tweeted.
“Arvind Kejriwal ji knows he is losing his election that is why he has started preparing the ground to blame EVMs on the 11th,” Mr. Yadav said in another tweet.
Second-lowest turnout
Counting of votes and the declaration of the election results will take place on Tuesday. Meanwhile, according to data released by Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, the New Delhi Assembly constituency recorded the second-lowest voter turnout at 52.15%.
BJP leaders sought to challenge exit poll results on news channels aired immediately after voting ended on Saturday which forecast a comfortable victory for the Aam Admi Party (AAP), on the basis of their timing and related technicalities.
Voting, they argued, had continued for two hours beyond the stipulated time till 6 p.m., while the exit poll results started being aired just after this time and even as polling was under way at an estimated 100 booth across the nation capital.
“We are confident of the figures not being run by television channels which are clearly half-baked but on the basis of information and inputs generated by our cadre from the very ground,” said a BJP leader. “Senior leaders, including Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari have already said the party will secure over 40 seats. In the worst-case scenario, the party expects to bag at least 32 seats,” another leader claimed.
Published - February 10, 2020 01:40 am IST
