CM candidate' is the biggest factor

What is the most important determining factor in the February 7 Delhi election? According to an opinion poll conducted by the India Today Group and Cicero, 51 per cent of the respondents thought the issue of chief ministerial candidate is the most important one.

Party accounted for 23 per cent while other issues were voted for by just 15 per cent. The BJP has fielded former IPS officer Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate while former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is the CM candidate of his party, the Aam Aadmi Party.

However, in the race as the most-preferred chief minister, Kejriwal was leading the race with 41 per cent votes while Bedi was placed second with 38 per cent score, according to the opinion poll. Former Union minister Ajay Maken of the Congress was a distant third with just 12 per cent of the respondents backing him.

Delhi divided over BJP's projection of Kiran Bedi as CM candidate

Sixty-five per cent of respondents surveyed ahead of the Delhi assembly election scheduled for February 7 supported former IPS officer Kiran Bedi joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said an opinion poll conducted by the India Today Group and Cicero. Twenty-five per cent said no.

Forty-three per cent said projection of Bedi as the chief ministerial candidate by the BJP is a wrong decision while 44 per cent felt otherwise.

Is the protest by the BJP dissidents against Bedi's nomination harming the BJP? To this question, 49 per cent said yes while 35 per cent no, according to the poll. When asked whether the BJP is encouraging political opportunism through the Bedi episode, 47 per cent said yes while 36 per cent said no.

Was Prime Minister Narendra Modi right in saying Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal behaves like a Naxalite? To this question, 44 per cent said yes while 34 per cent said no. The poll was conducted in 35 assembly constituencies of Delhi (total seats 70) and its sample size was 1,910. A BJP spokesperson refused to attend the Headlines Today show on the television on the opinion poll, said the anchor Rahul Kanwal.

Dissidents in the BJP was harming the party

How do general opinions on former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the February 7 election stand? According to an opinion poll conducted by the India Today Group and Cicero in 35 assembly constituencies of Delhi, 30 per cent feels Kejriwal is a runaway chief minister (he served as the CM of Delhi with the Congress's backing for 49 days between December 2013 and February 2014) while 25 per cent feels is a revolutionary. Twenty-two per cent of the respondents feels the activist-politician is a political leader and 14 per cent feels he is an anarchist.

Regarding Kejriwal's chief opponent Kiran Bedi [Kejriwal leads the race against Bedi and Maken], 37 per cent of the respondents feel she was deliberately brought in by the BJP to counter Kejriwal while 28 per cent felt the former supercop was a natural choice to become the chief minister of Delhi. Thirteen per cent of the voters felt the BJP had no other option but to nominate Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate while 12 per cent felt the saffron party is not confident about the Modi wave in Delhi and hence opted for Bedi.

However, 49 per cent of those who were surveyed felt protest by dissidents in the BJP was harming the party ahead of the crucial polls. The results of the Delhi assembly election, which will be held for the second time in 15 months, will be declared on February 10.