Beating the butterfly effect

Some slept. Some prayed. Some even watched Delhi Daredevils take on Kings XI Punjab. A day before results of the 15 Lok Sabha elections come out, candidates from the capital looked upbeat. What was going on inside their minds, however, is anybody’s guess, reports Anuradha Mukherjee.

Some slept. Some prayed. Some even watched Delhi Daredevils take on Kings XI Punjab.

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A day before results of the 15 Lok Sabha elections come out, candidates from the capital looked upbeat. What was going on inside their minds, however, is anybody’s guess.

“My daughter, Arushi, and I are waiting for our exam results,” laughed Congress’ New Delhi candidate seat Ajay Maken.

“Tomorrow is my final exam results. Her Class X results will be out next month."

A four-day family vacation in Phuket (Thailand’s third largest island) hasn’t been enough. “I have promised Arushi another trip if she scores good marks,” Maken said.

Many candidates we talked to on Friday afternoon were catching up on some sleep.

Not Vijender Gupta. "I simply slept for two days after the polls. For the last two months, I was not getting more than three hours of sleep," said the BJP's Chandni Chowk candidate.

"Then I got busy with assessing the polls. A day before I got injured in an anti-fee hike protest."

"We had repolling in some areas, so I was occupied for some time," Goel said.

On Friday evening, while Gupta visited the Gauri Shankar Temple in Chandni Chowk to pray for victory, Goel headed for political mentor Atal Bihari Vajpayee's home.

All the leaders were clear that relaxing completely was not possible.

"One has to keep meeting people to get a sense of what the general mood in the city is like," said Congress Northeast Delhi candidate Jai Prakash Aggarwal. "I have been going to my office in Rajya Sabha and the state Congress office."