Even before the national election results on Friday, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit has conceded defeat.
“I can speak for myself. There is a lot of anti-incumbency and a win is unlikely. But I don’t speak for the party,” Mr. Dikshit said.
“Our campaign was not up to the mark, there was anti-incumbency and that clearly showed in Delhi. That’s why you see so many exit polls are giving these numbers,” he added. He is fighting to retain his East Delhi constituency, which has voted him since 2005.
Mr. Dikshit, 49, is facing the BJP’s Maheish Giri, an Art of Living instructor, and AAP candidate Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
He is the first Congress MP to endorse the findings of exit polls, which have predicted that Narendra Modi’s BJP and its allies will win a majority.
The BJP is expected to win five, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) two.
A preview of a possible drubbing for the Congress was seen in the Delhi assembly election in December, which resulted in the exit of Mr. Dikshit’s mother Sheila Dikshit after 15 long years in power.
Ms. Dikshit lost her own constituency, New Delhi, to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, whose party scored a spectacular debut.
AAP bagged 29 of the state’s 70 seats, placing second after the BJP and decimating the Congress.
