assembly-elections

Updated: Feb 09, 2020 17:39 IST

After exit polls predicted a dismal performance by the Congress in the Delhi assembly elections, the grand old party’s in-charge of the national capital, PC Chacko on Sunday looked at its prospects after the votes are counted.

All the five exit polls on Saturday said the AAP is all set to retain power in Delhi with a second consecutive victory. They projected the AAP’s win by a two-thirds majority with the party getting anything between 47 seats to 68 seats in the assembly of 70 members.

PC Chacko dismissed the exit polls, which estimated the Congress would come a distant third, and spoke about the possibility of an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

“It depends on the results. Once results are out then only we can discuss it,” PC Chacko said when he was asked about the possibility of an alliance between the Congress and AAP.

“I think the surveys are not correct. Congress is likely to do better than what surveys predict,” he also said.

The five exit polls projected AAP’s win by a two-thirds majority and most said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be able to improve its tally by baggings more seats than that from the last assembly elections in 2015, when it won just three.

Chacko had said on Saturday that his party will spring a surprise on February 11, the day on which counting of votes will take place. He had also said that the Congress party has not thrown in the towel.

The Congress leader had said AAP was his party’s main opponent and not the BJP. He said the Congress is fighting on the issue of development.

“We are fighting an ideological war. Delhi has seen a slow pace of progress in the last five-six years. People are looking at the Congress with hope as Aam Aadmi Party makes false promises and the BJP spreads communalism,” Chacko said.

Before Chacko, the Congress party’s national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala talked about the exit polls and said there are several instances where these have “horribly gone wrong”.

“In Haryana, one exit poll was giving us two seats but we ended up winning 31 seats there. You can never truly know what the voter is thinking,” he said.

Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra also said that “all exit polls are going to fail.”

“The BJP will not get even 20 seats and Kejriwal is not going to form a govt in Delhi. I’m hoping Congress is going to do much better than what exit polls are showing. Let us wait till the results are out.”

The results of the bitterly-fought Delhi assembly elections will be declared after the votes are counted on February 11.