Parties up the ante as Delhi prepares to vote

The cliff-hanger of a contest in Delhi is drawing to a close amid high drama.

The BJP’s CM candidate Kiran Bedi burst into tears at a public meeting here on Wednesday, saying she was “overwhelmed by people’s love” while Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the charge into the AAP camp. The AAP, on its part, declared the results of an internal poll, claiming a landslide win for itself.

On the penultimate day of campaigning, the PM, at his last public rally at Ambedkar Nagar in south Delhi, mocked at the various opinion polls that are showing a surge for the AAP.

“Do not pay any attention to these rumours. In the last elections, they declared they would win 50 seats before the results came out. Then in Varanasi, where I was contesting, surveys predicted I would lose badly. But I won. A survey said I would lose by 3 lakh votes,” Modi said.

Sharing the results of an internal survey, AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said his party is expected to win 51 of 70 seats, while the BJP would get just 15. This is the “most likely scenario” he said.

Modi also attacked the AAP for donations that it received from allegedly dubious sources. “Someone called and asked me the other day — have you also donated money?” the PM said in his characteristic sarcastic manner. “He said, a website shows you have given a donation to a political party. When I enquired, it turned out that even Mahatma Gandhi and Obama had made a donation to that party. What kind of people are these (AAP)?”

Meanwhile, the Election Commission dismissed AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s charge that electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been tampered with.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad spoke of the AAP’s “desperation”. “Raising doubts on EVMs is a sign of desperation on AAP’s part. These are the same machines that got them so many seats in Delhi last time,” he said.

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