As Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party took a big lead over the Bharatiya Janata Party, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday acknowledged the gap with its prime rival but underlined that he wasn’t losing hope yet. “There is still time,” Tiwari said, according to news agency ANI.

‘We are hopeful’, said Tiwari who had projected 55 seats for his party minutes before election officials sat down to count the 9 million votes that had been cast on February 8.

A few hours into the counting revealed that Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP was closer to this target that Tiwari had projected for the BJP. “Whatever the outcome, being the state chief I am responsible,” Manoj Tiwari said.

Tiwari had played a key role in the election campaign that was overseen by his party’s senior leadership that had decided against naming the BJP’s presumptive chief minister. Manoj Tiwari was nevertheless seen as one of the contenders.

The BJP had rejected exit poll projections that were released soon after voting concluded on February 8 that predicted a comfortable majority for the Aam Aadmi Party.

The BJP quickly dismissed the predictions, insisting that the “exact poll” would be very different from the “exit poll”. “ We don’t believe in exit polls, we believe in exact polls. Exit polls have often proved wrong in the past,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar who was closely associated with the Delhi election had said.