Lok Sabha election: High-octane campaigning in Delhi to end today ahead of phase 6; over 1.43 crore people to cast vote

New Delhi: High-octane, high-octave electoral campaigns in Delhi will come to a standstill on Friday evening ahead of the Lok Sabha polls on 12 May, which is largely being seen as a three-way contest among the BJP, the Congress and the AAP. All three major parties in the capital have stepped up political heat against their opponents at the fag end, bringing in a fair share of controversies. The latest row being the allegation levelled by East Delhi AAP candidate Atishi on Thursday, who read out a pamphlet containing “obscene and derogatory” remarks against her that she claimed has been distributed in the constituency by her BJP rival Gautam Gambhir. The cricketer-turned-politician making his debut in politics, vehemently denied the charge, saying he will quit the race if the allegation was proved right, and that he will file a defamation suit against the leaders of the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. [caption id=“attachment_6604281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Atishi and Gautam Gambhir.[/caption] Ever since the final list of candidates were announced in April, all parties have been canvassing, and on Wednesday star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a huge BJP rally at Ramlila Maidan where he attacked both the Congress and the AAP. Modi targeted the Congress alleging that the Gandhi family used Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier INS Viraat as its “personal taxi” when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister. He also launched a blistering attack on the AAP during his first rally in the national capital, accusing the Arvind Kejriwal-led government of supporting the “tukde-tukde gang” and bringing in “nakampanthi” (non-performance) model of governance. On the same day, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi held two back-to-back roadshows and hit out at Modi while throwing an open challenge to him to fight the last two phases of the Lok Sabha election on the issue of the “false promises” he made to people. Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally on Thursday in east Delhi days ahead of the polls as he attacked Modi and the BJP over a number of issues. BJP MP Hema Malini on Thursday canvassed for the party’s New Delhi candidate Meenakshi Lekhi in Paharganj area, where she sought to strike an emotional chord with the people, saying she was “flooded with memories” as her childhood was spent in the national capital. As many as 164 candidates are in the fray in Delhi, which has seven constituencies — North Delhi, South Delhi, North West Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, East Delhi and Chandni Chowk. Mircophones will fall silent and parties will practically cease to trade barbs as the 48-hour silence period ahead of the polls kicks in Friday evening. Prominent candidates in the contest include, veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, Olympian boxer Vijender Singh, Union minister Harsh Vardhan, cricketer-turned -politician Gautam Gambhir and Atishi from AAP. Of the over 1.43 crore eligible voters in Delhi — 78,73,022 are male and 64,42,762 female, while 669 belong to the third gender. The number of overseas electors stands at 40, while the count of service voters is 11,005. A total of 13,819 polling stations will be established at 2,696 locations in Delhi, with a model polling station in each of the 70 assembly constituencies.