New Delhi: According to exit polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces his first state election defeat since sweeping to power last year. The exit polls showed the resurgent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on track to win a majority in New Delhi's assembly.
A defeat for Modi's BJP in Delhi would harm his chances of consolidating power in parliament, where his reform agenda is being thwarted.
Modi needs to win most of the state elections over the next four years to gain control of both houses of parliament to deliver on his promise of jobs and economic growth.
The Aam Aadmi Party is likely to win 38 seats in the 70-seat New Delhi assembly, according to the average of four opinion polls released on Saturday after the voting had ended.
The official results will be out on Tuesday.
"Modi has not done enough since coming to power. He is brilliant at marketing, but he is all talk, no action," said Gurjit Singh, 45, outside a polling booth in south Delhi, adding he had voted for Aam Aadmi.
The BJP is expected to win 29 seats and Congress, the party that has dominated Indian politics over the last century, will win three seats, its worse ever performance, the polls showed.
The BJP's campaign has been marked by infighting with party workers frustrated that Kiran Bedi, the first woman officer in the Indian Police Service, was appointed as the party's chief ministerial candidate, even though she only became a party member three weeks ago.
