TOI Poll says NO to BJP forming minority Govt in Delhi
The aversion to the idea of a government being formed by BJP from within the current assembly might stem from the perception that this can only be possible through dubious means.
When asked whether they believed the allegations of horse trading being levelled against BJP, just under half the respondents said they did and less than a third said they did not, the rest saying they did not know or couldn't say.
The poll was conducted by market research agency CVoter and polled 1,038 people in the capital.
The poll also provides an indication of why BJP seems so reluctant to hold fresh elections in Delhi despite having swept the Lok Sabha polls, winning all seven seats by margins of over a lakh of votes in each case. The media perception might be that Aam Aadmi Party is a spent force, but BJP appears to be less sure on this count and perhaps rightly so. According to the poll, about 43% said AAP would get a majority in fresh elections while a smaller 37% felt BJP could get a majority.
There was also a slight preference for an AAP-Congress coalition over an AAP-BJP coalition in the event of a hung assembly emerging once again. Around 39% of the respondents said they would prefer an AAP-Congress government compared to about 32% for the other potential combination.
AAP's Arvind Kejriwal remains the favourite for chief minister, with 34.4% picking him compared to 17.1% for Harsh Vardhan, who is now the Union health minister. No other potential candidate for the job got even 10% of the votes.
Within those now in BJP, Harsh Vardhan remains the clear popular choice with 34.8% saying that he was the party's best option for the post and no other BJP leader getting into double digits. Interestingly, however, when asked whether they were in favour of the idea of Kiran Bedi joining BJP and becoming chief minister, almost 65% said yes.
The support for Arvind Kejriwal is despite the fact that a decisive 70% said his popularity has waned in Delhi. Why the support then? The answer may lie in what have been identified as Delhi's biggest problems?inflation (26%), power (16%), water (14%) and corruption (12%). Perhaps it is the perception that Aam Aadmi Party's 49-day government had acted on the last three issues in this list and BJP has failed to do much about the first that explains the continuing goodwill for Kejriwal and his party. more