The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is likely to emerge as the single largest party in the coming Delhi elections with 35 seats, one short of majority, an opinion poll conducted by ABP News-Nielsen has predicted. The BJP is projected to get 29 seats while Congress is expected to get six seats in the 70-member House.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal seems to be the most preferred candidate for chief minister of Delhi with 48%, followed by Kiran Bedi of BJP with 42%. AAP is likely to emerge as the largest party with 37% vote share, followed by BJP with 33% and Congress with 18%.

As per the survey, Kejriwal is seen as more capable than Bedi in solving most problems faced by Delhiites. However, for "maintaining law and order and women's safety", respondents preferred Bedi over Kejriwal.

The survey found that AAP maintained its strong hold over economically weaker sections and Muslims. The party also had substantial support among voters living in slums with nearly every second voter in slums intending to vote for the party.

The survey said AAP had huge support among Muslim with nearly every two in three Muslim voters intending to vote for the party in the coming elections.

The survey found that Bedi's anointment as BJP's CM candidate was not helping the saffron party pull in additional voters.

The survey said voters were firmly aligned to their parties with very few intending to switch sides. However, there could be some fence-sitters currently saying they "may not vote for BJP" but could change their mind later, it added.

Kejriwal marginally pipped Bedi when it came to who did more "tamasha" than work for development. The opinion poll was conducted with 6,396 respondents in 35 constituencies by ABP News-Nielsen from January 25 to January 31.
(Times of India)