Updated
New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS): The AAP is likely to form a government in Delhi, half-a-dozen exit polls said Saturday after assembly elections, giving the BJP the second spot. The Congress is expected to be wiped out.
The Aam Aadmi Party of former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who ran an aggressive campaign, is expected to win between 31 and a whopping 53 seats in the 70-member assembly, the surveys said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party could bag 17-35 seats. The Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 years until December 2013, would face a rout, either winning no seat or at best four seats.
Today's Chanakya gave 48 seats to the AAP, which ruled Delhi for 49 days after stunningly winning 28 seats in its maiden election 14 months ago, and 22 to the BJP.
The Congress, it said, would be crushed in the AAP-BJP battle.
Any party will need at least 36 seats to form the government in Delhi.
The ABP-Nielsen survey gave the AAP 39 and the BJP 28 seats. The Times Now-C-Voter survey said the AAP was poised to win 31-39 seats and the BJP 27-35.
The India Today-Cicero put the AAP tally at 35-43 seats and of the BJP at 23-29. The NDTV survey said the AAP could win 38 seats and the BJP 29.
The Axis-APM poll credited 53 seats to the AAP and 17 to the BJP.
Today's Chanakya exit poll also said that 53 percent of voters felt that Kejriwal was best suited to be Delhi's chief minister, compared to 36 percent for BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi.
The AAP and the BJP were widely seen as the principal contenders for power in Delhi.
Today's Chanakya also said that all social classes in the capital -- Dalits, Muslims, Brahmins, OBCs, Banias and Punjabis -- had voted more for the AAP.
The percentage of Muslims voting for the AAP was as high as 71 percent.
Bedi, India's first woman police officer who was picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lead the BJP's charge in Delhi, disputed the exit poll findings, saying her party would win.
"We do not agree with the exit polls. We are confident the BJP will win in Delhi," she told the media.
Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said his party was always confident of winning in Delhi.
He insisted that the projection of Bedi as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate had backfired.
Ashwini Upadhyay, spokesperson for the Delhi unit of the Bhratiya Janata Party, told IANS: "The people of Delhi want good and strong governance."
The AAP and the BJP were widely seen as the principal contenders for power in Delhi.
Hundreds of thousands voted with enthusiasm Saturday in a fiercely contested assembly election in which both the BJP and AAP claimed victory.
While balloting was initially slow in middle and upper middle class areas, polling centres in low income neighbourhoods witnessed virtual mobs right from the time the exercise began at 8 am.
Midway through the balloting that ended at 6 p.m., both the AAP and the BJP claimed they were poised to win.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Lucknow that the BJP would get a clear majority in the 70-member Delhi assembly.
After voting in a government school in south Delhi, Bedi flashed a V sign and asked people to vote for a "clean, literate and safe Delhi".
"Today is a historic day for Delhiites. It's the day for them to decide what type of Delhi they want," said the country's first woman police officer, picked by Modi to lead the BJP charge in the capital.
"It's now in the hands of God", AAP leader and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted Saturday evening after the assembly elections ended in Delhi.
"We have done our work honestly and selflessly," he said. "The fruits (of our labour) is now in the hands of God."
Ajay Maken, who led the Congress charge in the capital, thanked voters for turning out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
"May the most capable ones win," Make said.
Although the Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years until December 2013, is also in the race, most pundits say Delhi's battle for power is mainly between the BJP and the AAP.
Sonia Gandhi was mellowed when asked about her party's prospects. "Jo janta chahegi wahi hoga (What people want will happen)", she said after casting her vote.
While the mood was relaxed at polling stations, political parties lodged complaints against one another.
The AAP urged the Election Commission to act against Bedi, saying she took part in a 'padyatra' and a bike rally in her Krishna Nagar constituency.
Bedi accused the AAP of wooing voters with bribe. Kejriwal denied this and said the BJP was spreading rumours.