NEW DELHI: As usual, media outfits and research firms spent no time to announce results of exit polls post elections even as polling continued in a number of Delhi booths till 8 pm.
Delhi registered a record 65 per cent votes Wednesday courtesy a triangular fight between BJP, Congress and Aam Admi Party and combined efforts of election officials and social activists. Counting of votes will be conducted on Sunday.
As per the CVoter-Times Now exit poll, BJP is the biggest gainer, and is suggested to win Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh on its own while in Delhi, it may fall marginally short of majority.
The poll suggested BJP is going to win 130 seats in Rajasthan with 48 for Congress. In Madhya Pradesh, the saffron party is expected to win up to 145 seats while Congress may bag maximum 77 seats.
Earlier on November 25, Madhya Pradesh saw brisk voting with the Congress claiming it was poised to oust the BJP, which has ruled the sprawling state for 10 long years, officials said.
With 2,586 candidates in the fray, the main contest is between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, contesting from his traditional Budhni constituency as well as from Vidisha, is confident of winning another five-year term.
In Rajasthan, about 25 million people voted across Rajasthan on December 1 to pick a new 200-seat Rajasthan assembly in keenly fought elections which both the Congress and the BJP claimed they would win.
Balloting took place in 199 constituencies with 2,087 candidates in the race. Polling has been postponed in Churu to Dec 13 following the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.
In 2008, Rajasthan recorded 66.25 per cent voting. The Congress came to power then.
The Congress and the BJP contested in all the seats while the National Peoples Party (NPP), led by Meena community leader Kirori Lal Meena, has put up candidates in 150 and the BSP in over 100 seats.
In the outgoing house, the Congress held 102 seats and the BJP 79.
Mayawati’s BSP and NPP are trying to make a dent in the vote bank of both the major parties. The BSP won six seats in 2008 but all six legislators joined the Congress.
All the five election states — Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Mizoram — have reported record voter turnout.
