New Delhi: It's now time for voters' day out in Delhi. With a high-pitched, bitterly contest election campaign behind, the fate of 673 candidates which includes 63 women in now in the hands of 1,33,09,078 voters out of which 73,89,089 are male and 59,19,127 female. Across the length and breadth of Delhi lakhs of voters will march to their polling booths on Saturday to decide who will represent them in the 70-member Assembly.
The fate of heavyweight contenders like Bharatiya Janata Party chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi, Krishna Tirath, Vinod Kumar Binny, Jagdish Mukhi; Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Somnath Bharti, Rakhi Bidlan; Congress's Ajay Maken, Shoaib Iqbal and Sharmistha Mukherjee will be sealed by 6 PM on Saturday and then they will have to wait for almost three days to known the results.
With the national capital divided into several segments marked by huge economic and social disparities, predicting the voters' mood is a hazardous job. Yet what can be safely said is that BJP and AAP are in the race for the top spot but the Congress after ruling Delhi for 15 straight years is staring at yet another inglorious rout.
One thing that became clear during electioneering is that Delhi's political battle is also a class war with the rich, upper middle class and the better off firmly with the BJP, while the poor, lower middle class and deprived sections standing with Arvind Kejriwal's AAP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and moves resonate well with the economically well off but for many AAP is their only hope and the one who could lessen their financial burden.
Following its superlative show in Lok Sabha elections and a string of victories in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand along with a massive jump in the number of seats in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi is proving to be a tough nut to crack for the BJP as the mercurial Kejriwal and his party have come back with a vengeance to challenge its massive election machinery.
Modi propelled BJP to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Since then BJP's strategy has been to contest even state elections using Modi's name.
But in Kejriwal, who first took on the politicians during the 2011 anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare and then formed the AAP on Gandhi Jayanti in 2012, Modi and BJP met a pugnacious street fighter with the ability to punch much above his weight.
After quitting as Delhi chief minister in just 49 days in February 2014 which was preceded by the bizarre spectacle of him taking the streets to protest on several issues and followed by the Lok Sabha elections debacle, Kejriwal devoted his energy in building his party and repairing his battered image which seem to be paying off. Concentrating on Delhi and realising his mistake in spreading AAP's scarce resources all across the country, Kejriwal worked hard on regaining trust of Delhi's voters and wiping off the "bhagoda" (quitter) tag.
AAP's promises of reduction in electricity and water bills, crackdown on corruption, reduction in Value Added Tax, ensuring civic amenities in slums, resettlement colonies and unauthorised colonies and better law and order to ensure women's safety have struck a chord with many.
Modi set the ball rolling by addressing the first of his five rallies in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on January 10 just two days before elections dates were announced. But a below par turnout sent alarm bells ringing within the party forcing BJP President Amit Shah to go for Plan B.
Realising Delhi was not a cakewalk and AAP no pushover, the BJP top leadership decided to counter its rival by bringing out all its top leaders. Till then BJP was banking solely on the Modi magic as the Delhi unit was a divided place and there was no consensus on a chief ministerial candidate.
According to BJP President Amit Shah's Plan B an army of top leaders, 120 MPs, several union ministers, state chief ministers were roped in and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi inducted into the party. Bedi was also named the chief ministerial candidate to take on her colleague-turned-rival Kejriwal.
Hopeful of Modi magic working yet again in Delhi along with Bedi's image of a tough, no-nonsense go-getter, BJP leaders also lured the Delhi voter by repeatedly hitting out at Kejriwal and claiming that he is good only for agitations and protests but is unfit to govern. Yet, this largely negative campaign does not seem to have helped the party.
Even though the BJP tried to make the election as the contest between Kejriwal and Bedi, it has come down to Kejriwal vs Modi and many senior leaders are busy shielding the Prime Minister. "It is the election for the chief minister and not for the prime minister. Narendra Modi is not fighting assembly elections. It is a state election. It is the BJP versus the rest. That is all," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
Dissent within the Delhi unit is another problem that the BJP had to grapple with during the election campaign. Bedi's induction and coming in of several new faces witnessed infighting and protests at the BJP Delhi office as many old timers were sidelining and denied tickets for elections. A few BJP leaders are even contesting as Independents and it may result in the division of votes. In order to highlight Kejriwal's U-turns, the BJP also asked 35 questions on his tenure and poll promises.
A massive three-tier security grid has been thrown around Delhi with over 36,000 police personnel, 11,000 home guards and 120 companies of Central Paramilitary Force deployed to ensure peaceful polling. Voters have the option of pressing the EVM button in favour of their preferred candidate in one of the 12,177 polling booths set up in 2,530 complexes. Election Commission has declared 741 booths as critical and another 191 as highly critical.
While the votes will be counted on February 10, Kejriwal and his loyal band of followers with broom have ensured that the BJP, which is in power at the Centre and 10 states, had to put its entire might in the national capital to counter a party which is just about two years old.
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