Opinion poll predicts hung House in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A fresh opinion poll has predicted a hung assembly in Delhi with BJP finishing with 34 seats and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stuck at 28 seats, the same as last time.

The opinion poll conducted by AC Nielsen for ABP news channel on Thursday gave the BJP just two seats more than what it got in the December 2013 state polls, but it will still be two seats short of the magic number to form the government on its own.

The opinion poll gave the Congress eight seats - the same number which it won in the last assembly elections. Independents or others may not get any seat in the 70-member assembly as per the survey, conducted across all constituencies.

Going by the survey, AAP has closed the gap with the BJP since last month when the same pollsters did the survey in Delhi. "It's worrisome for the BJP as according to our opinion polls in November and December the party was predicted to win 46 and 45 seats respectively. However, this time, it has come down to just 34 which is seen as a sharp fall," a statement from ABP News-Nielsen said.

"The good news for AAP is that there is a rise of almost 10 seats in their tally and they are second in the race. It was projected to win 18 and 17 seats respectively in the November and December surveys," it added.

The survey, whose sample size was 6,414, however, has not taken into account the candidature of Kiran Bedi who joined the BJP on Thursday.

As far as vote share percentage is concerned, the survey gave BJP 35 per cent as against 31 per cent to AAP and 24 per cent to Congress. Others may get 10 per cent.

The AAP leader and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is seen as the most preferred chief-ministerial candidate.

According to the survey, Kejriwal gets 54 per cent, BJP's Harsh Vardhan gets 29 per cent, Congress leader and ex-CM Sheila Dikshit per cent and BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi 3 per cent.