The fortnight-long campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections came to an end on Monday with leaders of different political parties pulling out all stops to woo voters in the first ever real triangular fight since the creation of the State.
Besides campaigning in New Delhi constituency on the last day, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit also addressed public meetings at Malviya Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Chhatarpur, Mehrauli and Dwarka Assembly segments in support of Congress candidates Kiran Walia, Jag Pravesh Kumar, Balram Tanwar, Yoganand Shastri and Tasveer Solanki.
AICC general secretary Ajay Maken, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Member of Parliament Mohammad Azharuddin and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J.P. Agrawal were among the other Congress leaders to make a last minute appeal to voters.
The debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has given a call to its sympathisers and supports across the country to call their friends and relatives in Delhi and ask them to vote for the party.
The capital is abuzz with talk that the AAP has deployed volunteers with spy cameras in slum clusters across the city to catch people offering booze and money in return for votes.
The party has reportedly trained 1,500 volunteers to keep a vigil on the election-eve allurement.
‘Vote cutter’
Throughout the campaigning, the Bharatiya Janata Party had targeted the Congress. But in the last two days the AAP was attacked and even ridiculed for being in the fray as a vote katwa (vote cutter). BJP leaders appealed to voters to give it a clear majority.
The fag end campaigning also witnessed claims and counter claims by BJP and AAP leaders. Sushma Swaraj said the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had only media visibility and the chances of getting votes were very less.
Countering the BJP leader, Mr. Kejriwal said: “Let them say whatever they want. In the end, it is the people who will decide. I don't think anything will happen because of her (Sushma). All of them are scared.”
While the AAP’s campaign was solely led by chief ministerial candidate Mr. Kejriwal, the BJP and the Congress fielded their top leaders -- Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and BSP supremo Mayawati also addressed public meetings to drum up support for their party candidates.
Workers of candidates have started distributing voter slips with booth numbers in them so that they don’t have problems in locating their names on the electoral rolls.
