``This, however, is not the only issue. Supporters and voters of BJP did not come out to vote in large numbers due to various reasons,'' said Sahib Singh. Saying that he was confident of BJP returning to power in Delhi even after he was replaced by Sushma Swaraj as chief minister, he said his confidence ``somewhat waned'' after the exit poll results.

``Price rise was a big issue in these elections, but this was due to Congress policies. We did take some steps, but apparently they were not enough,'' Verma said.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Mange Ram Garg today said he still hoped that his party would get more than 36 seats. The calculation is based on his discussions with local and mandal chiefs of the party on the polling and voter turnout, he said.

Questioning the authenticity of the exit polls which, he said, were conducted by interviewing people in some select pockets and results based on their opinion. The Delhi BJP chief said similar forecasts had been made in case of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh but were proved wrong.

Refuting reports that party workers were worried over the ``low morale'' caused by the adverse exit polls and a meeting of senior leaders had been convened for the same, he said yesterday's meeting was held to review the post-poll performance. All the mandal and local heads of the party were confident about the party's performance, he stressed.

At the meeting, party workers were also told to be vigilant during counting as the victory margins could be narrow prompting miscreants to create trouble.