Campaigning for the April 23 Delhi municipal elections for 272 seats ended on Friday with political parties leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters.
Big leaders of main political parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, took out rallies and roadshows across the Capital, claiming that nobobdy can stop them from sailing through in the polls whose results will be announced on April 26. E-rickshaws decked with the banners and pamphlets of respective political parties were seen doing rounds of different localities
across the city since morning.
Senior AAP leaders, including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Kapil Mishra, and Dilip Pandey, held public meetings and roadshows in different parts of the city while Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led a roadshow in Kalkaji. The AAP is expecting Delhiites to vote them into power for the first time in MCDs.
While 39 top leaders of the Congress — including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Oscar Fernandes, Bhoopinder Singh Hooda, Salman Khursheed and Raj Babbar — campaigned for the party in different parts of the city trying to win voters’ hearts and minds.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) had appointed
70 Assembly observers and 14
district observers for the
elections.
BJP Delhi president Manoj Tiwari, who campaigned in different parts of the city, ended his “Vijay Vikas Yatra” campaign for civic polls, in Saket. The party is confident of retaining its hold on the
civic agencies that it has been ruling over for ten years.
Union Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda also joined a roadshow and addressed a public meeting with Pradesh BJP vice-president Rajiv Babbar and other workers. Nadda hailed the setting up of hundreds of open gyms by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) as a contribution towards providing good health services to the people especially for the people of lower income groups.
“The MCDs in Delhi are doing humanitarian services through dispensaries and maternity homes and we will try to help them upgrade their services through Union Health Ministry,” said Nadda
North Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation have 104 seats each and East Delhi Municipal Corporation has 64 seats.
The Generation-1 electronic voting machines (EVMs) are to be used for the MCD elections, which the Commission has described as “foolproof”. The total number of electorate for the civic polls stands at 1, 32, 10,206 which include 73, 15,915 men, 58, 93,418 women and 793 voters in the other category.
Over 1.10 lakh people are eligible to exercise their franchise for the first time in the polls.
Union Minister Vijay Goel campaigned among minorities with Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan taking out massive roadshow at Keshavpuram. Maheish Girri organised a roadshow in Vishwas Nagar and Krishna Nagar Vidhansabhas.
Former BJP State president Satish Upadhyay campaigned in Malviya Nagar and Bijwasan and Pradesh general secretary Kuljeet Singh Chahal campaigned in Kishankunj Gharoli.