Delhi: High-decibel noise for high-stake polls over

NEW DELHI: A high-voltage campaign, marked by unprecedented vitriol and invectives, for the February 8 assembly polls in the national capital ended on Thursday at 6pm. The die has been cast and now it’s up to the voters.
Last two weeks were marked by a blitzkrieg with both AAP and BJP trying to woo voters with rallies, roadshows, corner meetings and door-to-door canvassing across the city. Congress, which, otherwise, had an insipid outing, managed to catch some eyeballs with its top leaders addressing some public meetings in the last few days.

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Eventually, the entire election seemed to be boiling down to a contest between those who were in “support” of Shaheen Bagh — the site of anti-CAA protests —and those who who were “opposing” it with BJP linking it to national security. References to Pakistan and phrases such as “Jinnah wali azadi and gaddar” were frequently used by candidates and star campaigners of the saffron party. The high-decibel campaign revolved more around national issues like abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, the favourable judgment in the Ram Temple dispute, surgical strike on Pakistan and implementation of CAA even as AAP, the party in power, tried to steer it towards development issues, such as better health, education, infrastructure and clean air.
Passions ran high as chief minister Arvind Keriwal was termed a “terrorist”, CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh — mostly women — were described as potential “rapists” and a Union minister egged on the public to shout a “shoot the traitors” slogan.
Election Commission of India found speeches and statements of BJP’s star campaigners violating the model code of conduct (MCC), forcing it to bar three of them — including Model Town candidate Kapil Mishra — from canvassing, addressing public meetings and giving interviews to media for different durations.
Taking note of provocative slogans raised by Union minister Anurag Thakur, Election Commission barred him from campaigning for 72 hours while West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma was banned twice – once for 96 hours and again for 24 – for his statement on Shaheen Bagh and calling the chief minister a “terrorist”. Action against Mishra was taken for calling the election a “India vs Pakistan” contest.
AAP’s Sanjay Singh, too, got an EC notice for saying that BJP could create trouble at Jamia and Shaeen Bagh on February 2. The EC also wrote to all political parties, urging them to restrain their candidates and make them comply with the provisions of MCC.
The social media also witnessed the three players trying to outdo each other with photos, videos and memes, which were often found offensive by leaders of rival parties.Fighting on the development plank, AAP is looking for another term in office while BJP, in exile for 21 years, is desperate to form the next government. For Congress, which governed the national capital for 15 years before being completely whitewashed, it’s a struggle to stay afloat in Delhi politics. The result of the 2015 polls was one-sided with AAP winning a record 67 seats in the 70-member assembly and the remaining three going to BJP. Congress had failed to open its account.
BJP campaigned in Delhi with all its might this time around. Apart from an army of over one lakh volunteers, the saffron party brought in over 240 MPs from across the country, chief ministers of 11 states and more than 50 ministers in the Union cabinet during the two weeks of active campaigning.
According to a senior party functionary, close to 10,000 corner meetings, padyatras and roadshows were held since January 24, when Union home minister Amit Shah kicked off the poll campaign with a public meeting in west Delhi’s Matiala assembly constituency. He micro-managed the election and himself participated in five to six public events every day.
AAP’s aggressive campaign, on the other hand, revolved around its five years in office and work done by the government. Besides door-to-door campaigns, close to 8,000 public meetings were addressed by the party’s top leadership and star campaigners at the assembly and ward levels.
“The work done by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government in the last five years in various sectors, including education, health, power and water remained our main focus. We also told voters our vision for the next five years,” said a senior AAP functionary.
While the Congress looked completely out of action initially, its campaign started looking up only towards the end when former party president Rahul Gandhi addressed four meetings in two days. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed one such meeting while Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and other star campaigners participated in a few.