New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS): Two days ahead of the polling for Delhi Assembly elections on February 8, the IANS/ C-Voter 'Delhi Tracker' survey points to a tough fight from the BJP.

Data from the IANS/C-Voter 'Delhi Tracker' poll survey on Thursday shows that the BJP is lagging behind the ruling AAP by only 8.5 per cent.

With campaigning set to end on Friday evening, the survey figures show that the AAP has 45.4 per cent of voter approvals while the BJP has 36.9 per cent of approval ratings. The results are based on responses to the question, "Whom will you vote for if elections are held today?"

Considering that the AAP was ahead by a little more than 24 per cent on January 6, when assembly elections were announced, the latest position is nothing short of a miracle.

To its credit, the BJP has steadily whittled down the formidable lead of the ruling AAP -- from 53.2 on January 6 to 45.4 per cent on February 5.

Interestingly, while the AAP has been projecting its performance and campaigning on the development plank, the BJP has been going strong on nationalism, in the backdrop of the Shaheen Bagh protests over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act.

The BJP's voter approval ratings on February 3, were 37 per cent -- a gain of 5.8 per cent since January 27. In contrast, the ruling Aam Admi Party's share of voter approval slipped to 45.1 per cent on February 3 -- a drop of 5.5 per cent since January 27.

Incidentally, the Congress party, relegated to third position, has been steadily losing out in the vote share. From 5.3 per cent voter approval on January 27, the Congress share stood at 3.3 percent on February 5.

The survey findings on February 5 are based on responses compiled from 3,301 respondents in urban, rural and semi-urban locations of Delhi.

According to the data for the week beginning January 27, the BJP had secured 31.2 per cent of voter approval as compared to 29.2 per cent on January 20. Over the same period, the ruling Aam Admi Party has secured 50.6 per cent and 53.8 per cent respectively, showing a 3.2 per cent decline in popularity. The survey sample size on January 27 comprised of 2322 Delhi voters.

Going further back, to January 16, only 26.3 per cent of Delhi voters had favoured, when queried as to who they would vote for in the Assembly elections, if elections were to be held on the same day. For the same day, 55.4 voters had swung towards the AAP.

The BJP has been making steady gains on The Delhi Tracker survey over the last four weeks after assembly elections were announced on January 6. On that day, Delhi Tracker survey had given the AAP a formidable position with 53.3 per cent of votes and a seat tally of close to 59 seats, while the BJP were estimated to win 25.9 per cent of votes and just eight seats.

Elections to the 70-member strong Delhi Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held on February 8 and results will be announced on February 12.

In the outgoing Assembly, the AAP had won 67 seats which came down to 62 after five of its legislators were disqualified. It lost one more seat in a bypoll after the seat was vacated by an AAP legislator, who won in the Punjab Assembly polls.