Soon after the exit polls, Home Minister Amit Shah called a meeting of Delhi MPs (File)
As exit polls predicted defeat for the BJP in Delhi, the party's state unit chief Manoj Tiwari declared that come verdict day on Tuesday, these forecasts "would fail" and the party would win comfortably.
"All these exit polls will fail. Save this tweet. BJP will form a government in Delhi with 48 seats. Don't look for an excuse to blame EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines)," Manoj Tiwari tweeted after half a dozen exit polls gave the Aam Aadmi Party of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a third straight win.
An aggregate of the exit polls predicted that AAP will win around 56 of Delhi's 70 seats and the BJP, 14. The Congress was given just one. Health warning - exit polls often get it wrong.
A party needs 36 in the Delhi assembly for a majority.
Soon after the exit polls, Home Minister Amit Shah called a meeting of Delhi MPs to discuss today's voting. Sources said BJP president JP Nadda and other office bearers would also be present for what could be a post-mortem.
The BJP ran a high stakes campaign in Delhi, which included door-to-door canvassing and multiple rallies and corner meetings by Amit Shah. Around 250 BJP parliamentarians were asked to camp at various places in the city.
The ruling party may have benefited from a last-minute surge after an acrimonious campaign revolving around the Shaheen Bagh protest against the citizenship law.
This election is Delhi's first since massive protests erupted nearly two months ago over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which, critics say, violates India's secular constitution and discriminates against Muslims.
In the 2015 assembly polls, the AAP won 54.3 per cent of the vote, the BJP won 32 per cent and the Congress managed just 9.6 per cent.