NEW DELHI, May 10 (PTI): Campaigning in the bitterly fought marathon elections for the 16th Lok Sabha spread over five weeks drew to a close today as top leaders sought to muster a final show of strength in the ninth and concluding phase for 41 seats in three states that included Varanasi where Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal are in the fray.
The campaign marked by attacks and counter-attacks by leaders across the political spectrum and use of derogatory language sometimes through the 9 phases ended at 6pm for 18 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 17 in West Bengal and six in Bihar. Voting will take place on Monday.
The campaign marked by attacks and counter-attacks by leaders across the political spectrum and use of derogatory language sometimes through the 9 phases ended at 6pm for 18 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 17 in West Bengal and six in Bihar. Voting will take place on Monday.
Counting of votes in the world’s largest exercise in democracy in which voters have turned up in large numbers will be taken up on May 16 with opinion polls projecting BJP of which Narendra Modi is the prime ministerial candidate to be the single largest party.
The ninth phase will witness the mother of all contests in Varanasi involving Modi, the Gujarat chief minister, and Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief. Five-time MLA from UP Ajay Rai is the Congress candidate. Modi is also fighting from Vadodara in his home state of Gujarat.
Polling was by and large peaceful in the previous eight phases barring incidents of Maoist violence in Chattisgarh and Jharkand.
The country registered a record turnout of voters, surpassing the previous record in 1984, as 66.27 per cent voting was reported in 502 Lok Sabha seats where polling has been conducted in eight phases that began on April 7. The 2009 elections recorded a 57.94 per cent turnout.
Modi spearheaded the BJP challenge and criss-crossed the country addressing scores of rallies besides holding innovative ‘chai par charcha’ meetings and also 3D video campaign.
The Nehru-Gandhi family made a vigorous push for votes with Rahul, his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and his sister Priyanka Gandhi leading the party challenge.
Sonia and Rahul are contesting from the family pocket borough in Rae Bareli and Amethi in UP where the Congress vice-president is pitted against BJP’s actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani and AAP’s youth leader Kumar
Vishwas.
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Rahul Gandhi storms Varanasi
Varanasi, May 10 (IANS): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Saturday stormed Varanasi to campaign against BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Narendra Modi, holding a roadshow and addressing a huge rally where he promised the right to health if the Congress is voted back to power.
Two days after Modi held a mammoth roadshow and a day after AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal attracted thousands, Gandhi rode on an open vehicle through the heart of Varanasi, surrounded by slogan-shouting Congress activists. It was the biggest show of strength by the Congress since the election campaign got underway in Varanasi. Gandhi’s roadshow began from a Muslim-dominated area, Gol Gadda.
Varanasi, which votes on May 12, is witnessing a high-profile political contest between Modi, Kejriwal and Congress candidate Ajay Rai. Gandhi was showered with flowers as supporters, wearing Congress caps and donning Rahul Gandhi paper face masks, cheered him and Rai. At a rally held in Chandauli district later, Gandhi promised to give the right to health to the poor people if his party is voted back to power.
“There are many people in India who need treatment for serious illnesses, but can’t get themselves treated in private hospitals. If they are seriously ill, they just have to count their days. We don’t want such a country,” he said. He said if the Congress wins the general election, every poor person will benefit from the right to health. “Which means the government will get you treated for free. The UPA will get you treated for free and get you free medicines,” he added. Gandhi’s rally comes after Modi addressed a rally in the Congress scion’s Amethi Lok Sabha constituency May 5.
Blaming the governments in Uttar Pradesh over the past 25 years for unemployment in the state, he said: “People from Uttar Pradesh have to travel all over the country to find employment. They cannot get jobs in the state.” The Congress vice president listed the National Food Security Act, Land Acquisition Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as the steps taken by the UPA government for the people. He also claimed that the Gujarat government gave land at very low rates to industrialists while delaying it to defence forces. “I am not against industrialists. I am just saying that there should be partnership between the two -- the poor people and the industrialists.”
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BJP hits back at Mamata, says she is crossing ‘lakshman rekha’
NEW DELHI, May 10 (PTI): Hitting back at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for using “choicest adjectives” against Narendra Modi, BJP on Saturday said her “poribortan” (change) is for anarchy and not for development.
“Didi’s ‘poribortan’ is not for good governance or development. It is for anarchy, booth capturing and encouragement to illegal infiltration,” BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in the campaign diary.
Mamata rode to power trouncing Left Front’s 34-year rule promising poribartan in the state. “Conventional wisdom would suggest that Mamata Banerjee’s and her party’s traditional rival in West Bengal are the Left parties. The Congress party would occupy the third spot with the BJP being an also-ran. Why then is the BJP the principal target of Didi’s attack?” he asked.
“Every day she crosses the lakshman rekha and uses the choicest adjectives against Narendra Modi,” Jaitley wrote in his blog.
There was war of words between Mamata and Modi after the latter said in Asansol that Bangladeshi infiltrators who were allowed into the country for votebank politics would be sent back, while refugees who were thrown out of Bangladesh on religious grounds would be greeted with open arms.
Mamata retaliated at the BJP prime ministerial nominee using harsh language and threatened to have him sent back “packing from airport”.
Calling “Mamata Didi” as an “intelligent politician”, Jaitley claimed that middle class (bhadralok) voters in the state have deserted her because of lack of development and now want Modi as PM.
Jaitley said besides the traditional Trinamool supporters, “the goons” have moved from the Left to her side and thirdly she has support of the illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh.
“For this cause she has to justify infiltration and abuse Modi. The more she does that, the more she alienates herself from a significant section which put her in power. How long can Didi rely on the illegally imported vote? Even if she manages to retain a large number of seats this time, warning signals for the assembly elections are beginning to be heard.”
