AAP remains Delhi Assembly favourite, BJP for Parliament

As the political temperature begins to warm up in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections, the findings of the /C-Voter Delhi Tracker voter survey's second leg indicate that the ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) is consolidating its grip on the electorate.

On Tuesday, asked who they would vote for if assembly elections are held today, 54.6 per cent of the survey respondents responded by saying "AAP". Incumbent Arvind Kejriwal, with 67.6 per cent approval, emerged as the top choice as Chief Minister for Delhi voters.

The latest trends also show that while the capital's voters prefer the AAP in the assembly elections, the Narendra Modi magic remains undiminished in the context of parliamentary elections.

Asked who they would vote for if the Lok Sabha elections were held today, 51.1 per cent responded in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Modi remains the overwhelming choice as Prime Minister with 70.7 per cent. Interestingly, Kejriwal bagged 10 per cent support in this category, far ahead of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at 4.1 per cent and interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi at 0.8 per cent.

In the outgoing Assembly, the AAP had won 67 seats which came down to 62 after five of its legislators were disqualified. It lost one more seat in a bypoll after the seat was vacated by an AAP legislator who won in the Punjab Assembly polls.

Tuesday's trends show Congress is still lagging far behind, at third position.

Dr Yashwant Deshmukh of C-Voter told that the party has been unable to overcome the loss of late former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, while the BJP has been unable to project a credible Chief Minister candidate.

The percentage of undecided voters is consolidating in favour of the AAP.

The survey questionnaire sought respondents' answers to four broad questions.

"Whom will you vote for if the Assembly elections are held today?" saw the AAP get 54.7 per cent, but to "Whom will you vote for if the Lok Sabha elections are held today?", the BJP was the winner with 57.1 per cent.

To "If for one reason or another you do not vote for your favourite party, then which party will be your second preference for voting?", 23.3 per cent indicated support for the BJP.

And "Whom would you like to see as the CM of Delhi ?", Kejriwal was the clear favourite with 67.6 per cent in his favour.

In addition, respondents were also asked further questions relating to issues that matter to voters of Delhi.

The trends reflect a continuation of the survey trends released a week ago, in which the AAP had garnered 53.3 percent of the voters surveyed.

According to Deshmukh, the AAP has cleverly stayed focused upon local issues and is not getting bogged down in issues like the CAA protests and the JNU row.

The -C-Voter Delhi Tracker is an extensive poll survey exercise that tracks voter tendencies across Delhi's 70 assembly constituencies. The sample size of the second leg, conducted on Tuesday across urban, semi-urban and rural areas up to 4 p.m., was 2,326 voters.

Its first edition was released on January 6, the day the election dates were announced by the Election Commission.

( With inputs from IANS )