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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Campaign ends with rallies, roadshows and celebrities
It was a celebrity fest in North East Delhi — one of the most keen battles this election.
Contenders for the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi ended their campaign on a high note on Friday evening with grand road shows, Twitter sessions and roping in celebrities in their last push for the support of 14.3 million voters in the city who will exercise their franchise on Sunday.
It was a celebrity fest in North East Delhi — one of the most keen battles this election. The BJP candidate and the sitting MP Manoj Tiwari roped in popular Haryanvi singer Sapna Chaudhary and Bhojpuri actor Khesari Yadav to woo the voters. Three-term Congress chief minister Sheila Dikshit and senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey are engaged in a close fight with Tiwari in this constituency.
Tiwari’s almost four-kilometre-long road show started from Pushta Road and passed through areas such as Seelampur, Usmanpur and Ghonda Chowk. Tiwari requested people to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.“Vote for Modi, vote for the nation. BJP is the only party which has worked tirelessly for resolving issues in Delhi,” he said.
Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar lent the star appeal to Pandey’s campaign. Slogans such as Mar mohariya taan key, jhaadu ke nishaan pe(without any fear, vote for the broom) reverberated the narrow bylanes of the constituency.
Dikshit started her campaign early and continued till 6pm. “We are confident that the people of North East Delhi, and across the city will support us and we will come to power with a big margin,” Dikshit said.
The road shows spelt bad news for several commuters who complained of getting caught in Seelampur, Usmanpur and Burari. Delhi Traffic Police’s Twitter handle was flooded with notifications warning commuters to avoid the areas.
In East Delhi, BJP’s Gautam Gambhir sought support with his family and friends. Gambhir’s wife, Natasha, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Delhi BJP in-charge Shyam Jaju joined him during a road show on Vikas Marg.
The AAP, having accused Gambhir of circulating a offensive pamphlet against its candidate Atishi on Thursday, attacked Gambhir again, saying he was using a duplicate to escape the scorching heat during his campaign. AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj, in a video, said it is unfortunate that Gambhir is trying to fool the people of Delhi. Bharadwaj tweeted, “This means @GautamGambhir expects JANTA will come out in hot scorching sun to waive & garland a duplicate. While he sits in AC car. Wow !! This is called fooling the people (sic).”
Delhi BJP vice-president Rajiv Babbar said, “For 10-15 minutes during campaign he felt little giddiness due to heat and sat inside the campaign vehicle, while the party workers atop the vehicle were waving at people.”
Atishi, too, ended her election campaigning with a roadshow at Vikas Marg along with actor Prakash Raj.
Congress’s East Delhi candidate Arvinder Singh lovely held a bike rally in the area. After a 7-km-long road show from the Model Town to the buzzing commercial hub Sadar Bazar, union environment minister and BJP candidate Harsh Vardhan took to Twitter holding an online and offline Chaupal with residents and participants. He spent the evening listening to people’s problems and answering queries on how he will fix issues such as sealing, traffic congestion and pollution.
At the chaupal, organised in Sindhora Kala village in north Delhi, with men wearing bright yellow and red turbans surrounded by saffron flags, Vardhan promised people of establishing a call centre at his residential office, which will act as a dedicated helpline for the citizens.
“People will be able to just ring me up to have their problems heard and resolved. Chandni Chowk will become the best constituency if you all vote Modi ji,” said Vardhan.
Around same time, AAP’s Pankaj Gupta took out a long road show, starting from Shakur Basti and passing through Tri Nagar and Shalimar Bagh assembly segments. AAP’s South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha organised rallies and motorbike road shows in five assembly constituencies — Sangam Vihar, Deoli, Mehrauli, Kalkaji and Badarpur.
In West Delhi, BJP’s Parvesh Verma conducted a ‘mega roadshow’, covering the entire constituency, while his Congress and AAP adversaries conducted public meetings and door-to-door campaigns. Congress candidate Mahabal Mishra started his day with meeting voters for morning walks and yoga sessions and AAP’s Balbir Singh Jakhar ended his campaign by attending religious functions.
