High-decibel campaigning ends in Delhi, polling on May 25

New Delhi: The curtains came down on Thursday evening on a high-voltage campaigning in the national capital that saw Union ministers, chief ministers and senior leaders of political parties descending on the city that will go to polls on May 25.

A total of 162 candidates are in the fray for the crucial polls in Delhi with the maximum contesting from the Northeast Delhi constituency.

BJP’s poll campaign saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing two rallies and Union Home Minister Amit Shah also taking the stage. On the last day of campaigning on Thursday, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal unleashed a campaign blitzkrieg in the city.

Several chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, also campaigned in Delhi to seek votes for the party’s poll picks.

Congress’ poll campaign was led by its chief Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leader Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot among others. On Thursday, Gandhi addressed poll meetings in Mangolpuri in northwest Delhi and Dilshad Garden in northeast Delhi in support of party candidates.

The former Congress chief also took a metro ride and interacted with the people.

On May 18, Gandhi addressed a public meeting organised by the Congress in Delhi’s Ashok Vihar.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was released on interim bail till June 1, held roadshows in support of Congress candidates while Pilot campaigned for AAP’s South Delhi candidate Sahi Ram Pahalwan.

 The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are part of the opposition INDIA bloc. Under a seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the former has fielded candidates from three Lok Sabha seats in Delhi while the latter is contesting from the remaining four.

AAP’s poll campaign got a shot in the arm with the release of Kejriwal from Tihar Jail.

While the AAP convenor was in jail, his wife Sunita Kejriwal held roadshows for party candidates and senior party leaders Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjay Singh, and Gopal Rai held several ‘jansabhas’ and outreach activities under the party’s ‘Jail Ka Jawab Vote Se’ campaign.

Following his release, Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann held roadshows in some constituencies while Sunita Kejriwal also joined her husband for poll meetings.

The elections are a direct fight between the INDIA bloc and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

AAP’s Somnath Bharti is pitted against BJP’s Bansuri Swaraj from the New Delhi seat while Congress’ Kanhaiya Kumar is contesting against Manoj Tiwari from the Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.

Tiwari will be vying for a third term as MP from the constituency. He is the only candidate who has been repeated by the BJP.

Kuldeep Kumar of AAP is in the fray from East Delhi and is up against BJP’s Harsh Malhotra while AAP’s Mahabal Mishra is pitted against Kamaljeet Sehrawat of the BJP from West Delhi.

Praveen Khandelwal of the BJP is facing veteran Congress leader JP Agarwal for the Chandni Chowk seat while Udit Raj is contesting against Yogendra Chandolia from the Northwest Delhi seat.

Ramvir Singh Bidhuri of the BJP is in the fray from South Delhi while AAP has fielded Sahiram Pahalwan from there.

There are 1.52 crore voters in Delhi this time, with the maximum being from West Delhi at 25.87 lakh.

The Election Commission has set up more than 13,000 polling stations at 2,627 locations. The gender ratio has also increased by 33 points to 851 this time from 818 in 2019, EC officials said.

With 13,637 and four auxiliary — including 2,891 critical — polling stations in Delhi, 70 pink booths will also be set up, which will be handled by women officials only. Along with this, 70 model polling booths will be set up, they said.

Over one lakh polling personnel have been engaged for the Lok Sabha polls. Additionally, 46 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, 78,578 Delhi Police personnel, and 19,000 home guards will be deployed for security arrangements across all polling stations in the city.

A total of 6,833 polling stations will undergo direct monitoring by the chief election officer’s office and district election officers through a webcast, ensuring transparency and accountability in the electoral process.