MUMBAI: With 12 million voters, 70 seats and four major national parties contesting elections, New Delhi has become the focal point for all the news channels for the next four days. The entire news fraternity is covering the election with esteem supervision, with not even a single incident staying unreported. Interviews, analysis, opinion polls, poll of polls, panel discussions and debates are the daily offerings.
Narrating the political significance of Delhi, NDTV co-founder Prannoy Roy during his show ‘Battleground Delhi’ where he was joined by Shekhar Gupta and Dorab Soopariwala said, “Delhi election is a big big election and the whole question is will there be a continuation of the impact of Modi juggernaut or the Modi juggernaut will hit the pot holes and take a setback.”
The growth of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the downfall of Indian National Congress (INC) have made life difficult for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). No clear picture is evolving from the battle ground and that makes pollsters’ job extremely difficult. Soliciting tweet came from veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, “Suprabhatam! Feel sorry for pollsters. get it wrong, will be accused of being bazaaru if they get it right, will be called tukka!” is what he tweeted.
When asked about the relevance of opinion polls and exit polls BAG Network chairperson and MD Anuradha Prasad told Indiantelevision.com, “Election is a festival of democracy and the surveys are a part of it. The opinion polls do leave a small impact on voters mind.” On the credibility quotient Prasad added, “We have our own team of surveyors consisting of 70 to 80 specialists who are working hard day and night to get the most relevant figures.”
ABP News managing editor Milind Khandelkar added, “We don’t do any on field survey; Ac Nielsen conducts the survey for us which we telecast on all of our channels. We have a distinguished panel consisting of different expertise, and we analyse the numbers to come to a relevant conclusion.”
With elections, comes opinion polls and this time, like every other time, news channels have given out their verdict much before the counting day. As per the ABP + Nielsen opinion polls, Delhi could see a hung assembly with AAP closest to victory with 35 seats followed by BJP with 29 and Congress with 6 seats.
NDTV on its analysis predicts an absolute majority for AAP with 37 seats, followed by BJP with 29 and Congress with 4.
India Today analysis also gives an upper hand to AAP. The venture predicted 38 – 46 seats for AAP, 19 – 25 seats for BJP and 3 – 7 seats for Congress.
The IMRB survey has got a different data. Its data indicated absolute majority for BJP with 36 seats followed by AAP with 29 and Congress with 4.
The ET/ TNS survey gives Kiran Bedi lead BJP an upper hand with 36 - 40 seats. AAP is predicted to get 28 – 32 while Congress was restricted to mere 3 by the surveyors.
Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Sources- BJP workers have given up in many places, similar to how cong workers gave up in last elections. They are completely demoralized.”
Prime Minister Modi urged the youth to cast their votes by tweeting, “As Delhi votes today, urging voters to go out & vote in large numbers. I particularly call upon my young friends to vote in record numbers."
At the time of filing the report, 64 per cent voters had successfully registered their opinion.
