On the last Sunday before the Delhi Assembly polls, the political parties made use of the weekend to reach out to voters by deploying several star campaigners to seek votes for their local MLA candidates.
Unlike previous elections, there were no large public rallies with the parties resorting to roadshows, small public meetings, and door-to-door campaigns.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday addressed two roadshows at Kirari and Mundka Assembly constituencies and then held three meetings at Vishwas Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Rithala.
CM on illegal colonies
Mr. Kejriwal in Kirari said AAP has worked towards the transformation of unauthorised colonies and alleged that the Congress and the BJP are against providing free amenities to the people of Delhi.
“All the unauthorised colonies in Delhi had the same fate as Kirari. In the last five years, we have built roads and drains, installed water and sewer pipelines, installed CCTV cameras but some colonies are left because the work pending for 70 years cannot be completed in just five years,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
He added: “If you vote for AAP, the provisions of free water, electricity, healthcare, bus rides, etc, will continue. The BJP has already said in its manifesto that they will neither provide free electricity nor free bus rides for women. Opposition leaders have time and again maligned my image for providing free electricity and water. So, I appeal to the people to think and vote.”
The BJP said senior leaders, including Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Prakash Javadekar, Shyam Jaju and Manoj Tiwari, would take stock of poll preparations at party election offices located across all the Assembly constituencies here between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
In favour of CAA
Earlier during the day, Union Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan flagged off a bike rally from the Delhi BJP office in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Mr. Shah and Mr. Nadda also led a programme which included 1,00,782 party workers intending to directly contact “every house” in each of the 70 constituencies.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh addressed a public meeting in favour of the party’s candidate from Rajendra Nagar constituency, R.P. Singh, where he raised issues related to potable water.
“For the last five years, the Kejriwal government has been making a fool out of people. They could not provide clean water to Delhi even after bringing 67 seats. The situation in this colony is similar to that in most areas of Delhi,” he alleged.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also entered the political fray here addressing a public meeting along with Mr. Nadda in support of Sangam Vihar Assembly Alliance candidate, Dr. Shiv Charan Lal Gupta.
“Mr. Kejriwal said the people of Bihar come to Delhi with a ticket of ₹500 and get treatment of ₹5 lakh for free. Do the people have to take the permission of the Kejriwal government to come to Delhi?” Mr. Kumar said.
Mr. Kumar, who shared the stage with Mr. Nadda and LJP leader Chirag Paswan at a rally in Sangam Vihar constituency in south Delhi, hit out at Mr. Kejriwal without naming him saying that “some people” were interested only in publicity.
“Those who got the mandate to govern Delhi did nothing,” he said, adding that Bihar being a poor State has done a “phenomenal job” in education, electricity and health sectors, and also strengthened road and developed better transport infrastructure.
Cong. takes a jibe at BJP
Former Congress MPs Shatrughan Sinha and Sandeep Dixit campaigned for Arvinder Singh Lovely in Gandhi Nagar and Arbind Singh in Karawal Nagar respectively.
Mr. Dixit alleged that the BJP was scared of making the public angry in various parts of the country, including Delhi, and is bent upon instigating communal violence here to win the polls.
“We have to be very alert in our fight against this communal politics and state terror,” Mr. Dixit said.
Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Nagma Morarji and Sachin Pilot also addressed rallies across Delhi.