Curtains came down on the fortnight-long campaign for the crucial Delhi Assembly elections that saw innovative canvassing combined with the traditional way of electioneering by the ruling Congress, the Opposition BJP and the debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Campaigning by all means came to end at 5 pm on Monday. Voting at 11,992 booths in all 70 Assembly Constituencies across the national Capital will start at 8 am on Wednesday that will last till 5 pm. A total of 810 candidates are in the poll fray. This time, the electioneering was different from the previous conventional style of campaigning. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook were abuzz with political activities as a majority of prominent leaders devoted a fair amount of time interacting with voters online. While Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit reached out to voters through popular application Google Hangout, BJP’s CM hopeful Harsh Vardhan interacted with electorates through live chat on Facebook. A dedicated team of the AAP too worked overtime to woo voters on the social media. The idea behind the exercise was to reach out to the first-time young voters.
However, development and basic infrastructure remained the major poll plank for all parties. The issues of inflated water and power tariff, water shortage, regularisation of unauthorised colonies, women safety and health infrastructure drew the maximum attention. Eyeing to regain power in the Capital after a long gap of 15 years, the BJP spared no efforts in its poll preparations. While it followed the traditional padyatras, door-to-door campaign and public meetings, the party also succeeded in making its presence felt online and on social media. For the first time, people in Delhi saw virtual campaigning with BJP leaders, including party’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, addressing public virtually through the 3D raths. The BJP moved two specially designed raths across the city addressing over 200 meetings.
Apart from this, the BJP came out with comics and caricatures exposing the ‘misdeeds’ of the incumbent Government in Delhi. “Apart from over 1,000 corner meetings, 293 major public meetings were held by the nearly three dozen senior leaders of the BJP. This included five rallies of Narendra Modi. We also focussed on door-to-door campaign by party workers that helped us gauge the mood of the voters,” said Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel.
The BJP banked heavily on its PM candidate Narendra Modi that, the party claimed, swung the public mood in BJP’s favour. As part of its micro booth-level management, the BJP set up of 30-member teams at all polling booths, followed by 280 karyakarta sammelans in 280 mandals of BJP where cadres were trained.
As compared to the BJP, the Congress lagged behind in terms of public meetings. With the central leadership of Congress missing out from electioneering, the party held 52 major public meetings in 47 Assembly constituencies. Barring three rallies by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Congress’ show was managed single-handedly by its start campaigner Sheila Dikshit.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda, Uttrakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Kerala Chief Minister Ommen Chandy and Pradesh Congress presidents of all States too addressed public meetings in the Capital. However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s absence was conspicuous with cancellation of his sole rally proposed in West Delhi. The Congress leaders too made their presence felt through advertisements of radio, television and through SMSs.
But unlike previous occasions when only two party symbols were visible during campaigning, the third player, AAP, made its way into the electoral politics in Delhi. With corruption as its major plank, Arvind Kejriwal-led party made a vigorous attempt to woo the voters with its party symbol Jhaadu (broom). While its top leader Kejriwal was party’s flag-bearer in the constituencies, the party’s campaigning was concentrated more on the social media. With a majority of its leaders and candidates being unknown faces in public, Kejriwal took the uphill task of campaigning in all constituencies with his workers and supporters sporting caps with ‘main hoon aam admi’ printed on them and with brooms in their hands. Road show was the main tool of the AAP.
Also, it was for the first time the BJP and the AAP came out with separate manifestos for every Assembly segment with focus on the local issues concerning the area. A strict vigilance by the Election Commission resulted in a fewer defacement of public properties yet 346 FIRs were registered against various candidates for violation of the Model Code of Conduct.