With less than 48 hours left for polling, campaigning for Delhi municipal elections entered a frenetic pace today as political heavyweights hit the streets canvassing votes for their candidates.
With less than 48 hours left for polling, campaigning for Delhi municipal elections entered a frenetic pace today as political heavyweights hit the streets canvassing votes for their candidates.
The polling on this Sunday will seal the electoral fate of 2,400 candidates, a large chunk of them independents, contesting for the three municipal bodies -- South, North and East.
The polls, seen as a semi-final between BJP and Congress ahead of the Assembly polls next year, is significant for Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as she had strongly pushed for trifurcation of the MCD despite stiff opposition from a section from her party Congress.
Dikshit, who had restricted her campaigning to a few meetings in the run-up to the 2007 civic polls, has already attended campaigns and instructed her Cabinet colleagues and close associates to put all the hard work to regain power in the civic bodies.
The main contenders are BJP and Congress, the ruling and opposition block respectively in the current MCD, but smaller parties like Samajwadi Party and BSP are giving sleepless nights to them.
Though in public they make claims about clean sweep in the elections, leaders in Congress and BJP are keeping their fingers crossed as the polls are nearing.
Both the parties are also tense about the rebel presence in some of the wards, which they believe will affect their chances in some of the areas. The two parties have also expelled a number of local leaders to send a strong message to their cadre.
As the campaign entered a hectic phase, Dikshit and her cabinet colleagues, Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken and DPCC chief Jai Prakash Aggarwal have hit the streets.
From the BJP side, almost all Delhi leaders, including Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly VK Malhotra and Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta are on campaign trail.
Gupta has earned the wrath of a section of his partymen over denial of party tickets. There was also criticism from within the party about giving poll ticket to his wife Shobha.
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