Campaigning ends in M'rashtra

Six seats in Mumbai and suburbs, western M?rashtra, Konkan and Marathwada will witness polling in final phase.

Cacophony of a shrill campaigning for the second phase of polling on April 26 for second phase of Lok Sabha polls for 24 constituencies in Maharashtra came to an end at the stroke of five in Mumbai on Saturday.

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The drums felt silent and the dust settled down on the acrimonious electioneering, which witnessed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar criss-crossing the state to woo voters.

Six constituencies in Mumbai and suburbs, the sugar belt of western Maharashtra, Konkan and parts of Marathwada would witness polling in the final phase.

Marking the end of the Shiv Sena-BJP's joint campaigning, Vajpayee on Friday night came down heavily on the "opportunistic alliance" between Congress and Pawar-led NCP. "There is something fishy about this electoral pact," he said.

Vajpayee asked the Maratha strongman, who was expelled from the Congress in 1999 for raising the bogey of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, to come out clean as "people of the nation wants to know the truth."

With the exit polls for 24 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls on April 20 in the first phase showing varying results, the Prime Minister utilised the opportunity to extend an olive branch to Muslims, saying: "We do not look at them with suspicion and are prepared for an open discussion if the minority community feels like joining the NDA."

While Vajpayee addressed four rallies during the second phase of polling in the state, Gandhi campaigned in Marathwada, Western Maharashtra and Thane.

In the last leg of the campaigning, Thackeray desisted from raking up the controversy involving Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Instead the Sena supremo targeted Sonia Gandhi and Pawar in his inimitable style for cobbling together an alliance ahead of the polls.

The Sena-BJP appeared to have changed its campaign strategy by side-tracking Shivaji controversy and concentrating on "misrule" of the Congress-NCP-led DF government in Maharashtra, multi-crore fake stamp-paper racket and the ruling coalition's failure to tackle drought.

Pawar on the other hand, ridiculed Thackeray, his son Uddhav and nephew Raj in his speeches and launched a broadside against NDA government for "becoming an agent of the US regime."

For the NCP-Congress combine, Pawar's return to active electioneering after a surgery on his left jaw boosted the morale of the party workers.

Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, BJP state unit chief Gopinath Munde, president of NCP in Maharashtra and state Home Minister RR Patil also criss-crossed the state addressing public meetings.

Electoral fortunes of Speaker in the dissolved Lok Sabha Manohar Joshi (Mumbai North Central), Union Ministers Ram Naik (Mumbai North), Anant Geete (Ratnagiri), Jaiwantiben Mehta (Mumbai South), film stars Govinda (Mumbai North) and Sunil Dutt (Mumbai North-West), former union ministers Suresh Prabhu (Rajapur), Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil (Kopargaon), Suresh Kalmadi (Pune) and NCP chieftain Sharad Pawar (Baramati) would be sealed on April 26.

While Joshi is facing a straight contest from Maharashtra Minister Eknath Gaikwad, Govinda, riding on his popularity wave, is giving a Naik a run for his money. Naik is attempting to perform a double hat-trick of winning from one of the largest constituencies in the country.

Pawar is facing his one-time associate Prithviraj Jachak in his traditional bastion.

Interestingly, three former chief ministers of the state Joshi, Pawar (Baramati) and AR Antulay (Kulaba) are tasting electoral waters.

Mehta is taking on the young Milind Deora, son of senior Congress leader Murli Deora.

Sena has pitted its Rajya Sabha MP and firebrand speaker Sanjay Nirupam against Dutt in Mumbai North-West, the glamorous constituency which comprises most of Bollywood.

The constituencies going to polls in the second phase are Rajapur, Ratnagiri, Kulaba, Thane, Dahanu, Nashik, Malegaon, Jalna, Aurangabad, Kopargaon, Khed, Ahmednagar, Pune, Baramati, Satara, Karad, Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur and six constituencies of Mumbai.

Nearly 3.36 crore electorate would cast their ballot amid tight security.