Delhi polls: ‘Congress-AAP alliance depends on results’, says PC Chacko

New Delhi, Feb 09: A day after the exit polls predicted a landslide win for the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi, the Congress said that any possibility of an alliance with the AAP depended on the result of the Assembly Election in the national capital.

Rejecting the exit poll results, senior Congress leader P C Chacko said "If the poll prediction can be perfect then we don't need an election. We have faced such exit polls in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. I am not denying that these conclusions may not be always right but I feel that this exit poll may not be very correct. Congress is likely to do better than what these surveys are saying. I am not saying that we will get a majority but our position may be better."

Almost all exit polls predicted little change in the fortunes of the Congress, which had ruled the city between 1998 and 2013 but drew a blank in the 2015 polls.

"Let others celebrate the exit poll results. I am confident that the results on February 11 will startle everyone," chief spokesperson of Delhi Congress Mukesh Sharma said.

The party's Delhi unit president Subhash Chopra told reporters that all his party candidates contested with full strength. "There are at least 20 candidates of the Congress who were involved in keen triangular contests. We reject the exit poll results."

Congress contested the Delhi Assembly polls in alliance with the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD). It fielded candidates on 66 seats leaving four for the RJD.

The grand old party hopes to win some seats provided the minorities voters chose it over the AAP. "There are nearly 10 seats that Congress has a good chance of winning. However, it will depend on how the minorities voters cast their votes.

The final voter turnout in the Delhi polls was 62.59 per cent, down from 67.47 per cent in 2015 assembly election, with exit polls predicting an easy win for AAP, which sought to retain power on development plank, against the BJP that ran an aggressive campaign centred around the issues of anti-CAA protests and nationalism.

with PTI inputs