NEW DELHI: The high-voltage campaign for MCD elections came to an end on Friday. The voting will take place on Sunday and counting on December 7. On the last day of campaigning, three major parties BJP, AAP and Congress went all out to win the trust of voters – more than 1.44 crore – in a dozen MCD zones.
As many as 1,461 candidates – 674 males and 742 women -- are in the fray for 250 wards. Following the merger of three separate municipal corporations, a delimitation exercise reduced the number of contestable MCD seats from 272 to 250. The MCD is among the largest civic bodies in the world.
The promises made by the three key contenders are as bewildering as the expectations of Delhiites -- from road repairing, sanitation, traffic congestion, better school infra, corruption, water-logging and whatnot. One of the key features of the AAP campaign is CM Kejriwal’s ‘Janata chalaigi MCD’ slogan. The BJP, which ruled the undivided civic bodies, got back to its charges of corruption. And the Congress kept up its noise about the two contenders being Tweedledee and Tweedledum, recalling its days in nostalgic overtones.
The overall campaign was unsparingly blistering in its content and platitudinous in metaphor. The BJP went hammer and tongs against AAP, calling it a ‘Kattar Baharasht Party’ (outright corrupt). The AAP got back at it saying the BJP is a ‘video making’ company – an allusion to many video leaks targeting AAP.
If the BJP arrayed its top-of-the-line campaigners against AAP that rules Delhi, CM Arvind Kejriwal made light of it, saying the saffron party was so afraid of losing that they had to call in such big leaders against an “aam aadmi” like him. AAP claims of huge anti-incumbency against the BJP.
The BJP is seeking votes by showcasing the works done by the Central government. The Congress is riding on the back of development works done by the Shiela Dikshit government in the city.