Delhi Polls: A survey is a survey let's wait for final results, says Kiran Bedi

NEW DELHI: In the face of the exit polls that show BJP losing the Delhi assembly elections, the party's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi on Sunday said, whether defeat or victory, she will take the responsibility for its showing.

Bedi's comments, being seen as an attempt to distance PM Narendra Modi from a possible defeat, came even as Union minister and senior BJP member Nirmala Sitharaman met Bedi at the former IPS officer's south Delhi residence.

"A survey is always a survey. I think we need to wait for the final result because in some assembly seats the margin is very less. So it could swing any way," Bedi told reporters when asked about exit polls. According to the exit polls on Saturday, AAP appears set for a sweeping victory while BJP has been projected to be second.

"We will talk after the results come out on February 10. We are hopeful that the results will favour us," Sitharaman, the Union commerce and industries minister said after her meeting with Bedi.

Sitharamam added that Kiran Bedi's statement that she would take "full responsibility" if her party suffers a loss was her individual statement. "She is the chief ministerial candidate and that statement is her own. She is being upfront about it," the minister said.

Two days ahead of the Delhi polls, BJP chief Amit Shah had contended that the election outcome cannot be a referendum on the functioning of the Modi government. Shah's comments are in line with the remarks made by Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

"It is true that it is an election for chief ministership. The election in a state cannot be a referendum (about the Centre's functioning). Venkaiahji has said that the Delhi election is not to elect a PM. You also know the Constitution. Polls in Delhi are never to elect PM," Shah had said.

Holding that the electoral mandate in the capital cannot be seen as a referendum on the Modi government, Naidu had said, "It is an election for chief minister and not for Prime Minister."