As the short, but heated and occasionally unsavoury campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections concluded on Thursday, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) appeared to have mounted a strong challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which seemed to be on a winning streak in the beginning.
Mr. Kejriwal got endorsements from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Janata Dal(U) chief Sharad Yadav and a compliment from BJP leader Shatrugan Sinha on the last day of the campaign.
The Left parties threw their weight behind the AAP, appealing to its support base to vote for the party.
“Today, the BJP has the entire administrative apparatus with it. We have God with us,” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted. “Dhanyawad [Thank you], dhanyawad, dhanyawad. Today’s day is absolutely for dhanyawad,” said BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi. Delhi’s 1.3 crore voters will now decide the fate of 673 candidates in the fray for the polls on Saturday.
Thursday saw intense political activity, with the three chief ministerial aspirants — Mr. Kejriwal, Ms. Bedi and Ajay Maken of the Congress — taking out padayatras and roadshows all day. Senior party functionaries joined the campaign, with Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah heading to an election meeting in one of Delhi’s largest unauthorised colonies and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi holding a roadshow in Sultanpur Mazra.
Ms. Bedi ended her day with a roadshow in Krishna Nagar, where she is contesting, after doing a similar exercise in three other constituencies.
Mr. Kejriwal covered the entire New Delhi constituency by car and foot, stopping to speak to voters from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Mr. Maken, however, stayed away from his constituency and campaigned for Sharmistha Mukherjee, President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter, contesting from Greater Kailash.
The AAP’s campaign has largely highlighted its performance during its 49-day rule, which also earned the party the “Bhagoda” or quitter tag from the opposition.
The BJP has gone all out in wooing residents of slum clusters and unauthorised colonies — the core voter base of the AAP — with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his campaign speeches repeatedly referring to the promise of in-situ rehabilitation for slum dwellers, besides making a direct attack on Mr. Kejriwal for calling himself an anarchist.
Ms. Mamata Banerjee made an appeal to the electors of Delhi to vote for AAP.
