Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal though earlier said that AAP would get at least 90 seats, the recent poll surveys have given them maximum 21 seats in a 182-strong Gujarat assembly.
Undermining the primary speculations that AAP may replay its magic of Punjab in Gujarat, when the exit polls came out yesterday offering the party peanuts in terms of seats- pushing it to a distant third, behind even Congress, the discontent in party leaderships is expected.
Similar to the Gujarat state spokesperson of Congress who scrapped the exit polls and told Outlook that on the day of counting the state will see a ‘new dawn’, AAP leadership also expressed doubts over its authenticity.
Senior leader of the party Raghav Chadha told NDTV that exist polls always prefer BJP and the party is being underestimated as “AAP voters are silent; they don't come out in exit polls.”
Noting that the new entrants are always undermined he said, “As somebody who is the co-in-charge of the party in Gujarat, let me tell you we are going to do significantly better... for a party that is contesting in a state for the first time with all its might, a new entrant, it will forever be underestimated.”
He also brought in the example of 2013 Delhi assembly elections when the exit polls gave four to five seats to the new party but it ended up having 28 seats. “People could not gauge who our voters are... Aam Aadmi Party will get a significant vote share and form the government in Gujarat,” Chadha added.
Though Delhi Chief Minister during his campaign claimed that the party will get more than 90 seats and most of them will be from Surat, where party won the last municipality elections making inroads to the state. It won 27 municipality wards of Surat municipality in 2021 following which Kejriwal also held a roadshow in the city registering for the first time its presence in the state.
However, the party has warmly welcomed the results predicted in the MCD elections. While most of the exit polls have given 3-21 seats to AAP in Gujarat, all of them gave a clean sweep to the party in Delhi. Congratulating the people for the probable victory Delhi CM today said, “I would like to congratulate the people of Delhi. They have again showed their faith in us. Let's wait for tomorrow (Wednesday).”
In case of Gujarat, Kejriwal focussed on the projected vote share for his party and said that “15 to 20 per cent vote share” in a state considered to be the bastion of BJP is good enough for a new entrant.
Senior party leader Sanjay Singh, is nevertheless of different opinion. Addressing the reporters Singh said, “I am sure there will be a huge difference between the actual results and the exit polls especially in Gujarat.”
While results of MCD elections will be out tomorrow, to see their fate in Gujarat they will have to wait another day. The results of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh will be declared on December 8.