AAP win at Congress expense in Lok Sabha election: Survey

NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal’s one-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is likely to hurt Congress more than other parties in this year’s Lok Sabha election in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, according to a snap poll conducted by ABP News-Nielsen in these places.

The poll has predicted that in Delhi, AAP is likely to wipe out Congress to win six constituencies while BJP may get one seat. Congress, which won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2009, may not get a single seat, it said. While Congress vote share shows a fall from 57.13% in 2009 to 15% in 2014, the BJP’s will decline from 35.08% to 22% and the AAP will get 57% of the vote share.

However, Kejriwal’s influence seemed to be restricted to Delhi as BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi led in popularity ratings in Mumbai and NCR with an overall votes of 48%. Kejriwal followed with 31% leaving Congress V-P Rahul Gandhi at the third position with 16% votes. In the two seats of UP’s Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar in NCR, the poll said AAP and BJP were likely to win one seat each and BSP will lose its single seat. The AAP could win in BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s Ghaziabad constituency. In Haryana, the AAP has failed to make an impact. The AAP, which has support of the middle class in urban Delhi, might face a tough challenge in Mumbai and Thane. BJP, it said, was gaining in six seats with ally Shiv Sena, compared to just one in 2009.