Delhi polls: AAP strong, but BJP reducing gap steadily on voter ratings

With Delhi Assembly polls edging closer, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be reducing the gap with the ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) in terms of voter ratings. The IANS/C-Voter Delhi Tracker data on Monday showed that BJP has yet again improved its overall voter rating position by 2 per cent over the last one week.

According to the data for the week beginning January 27, the BJP has secured 31.2 per cent of voter approval as compared to 29.2 per cent on January 20.

Over the same period, AAP has dropped from 53.8 per cent to 50.6 per cent, showing 3.2 per cent decline in popularity.

The Congress continues to trail far behind even though it has improved its position by almost 2 per cent, from 3.4 per cent on January 20 to 5.3 per cent on Monday.

Monday's survey sample size comprised 2,322 Delhi voters.

Going further back to January 16, only 26.3 per cent of Delhi voters had favoured the BJP when queried as to who they would vote for in the Assembly elections, if polls were to be held on the same day. For the same day, 55.4 voters had swung towards the AAP.

The IANS/C-Voter Delhi Tracker survey projections on January 6, when the Election Commission had announced the schedule for Delhi Assembly elections, had given the AAP 53.3 per cent of votes and a seat tally of close to 59, while the BJP got 25.9 per cent of votes and just eight seats.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to the polls on February 8 and the results will be announced on February 12.

In the outgoing Assembly, the AAP had won 67 seats which came down to 62 after five of its legislators were disqualified. It lost one more seat in a bypoll after the seat was vacated by an AAP legislator, who won in the Punjab Assembly polls.

With barely two weeks remaining for D-Day, it remains to be seen if the BJP can bridge the gap with AAP, but the steady growth can definitely give the party an impetus to push forward towards a victory that has been eluding it for at least 22 years.