Campaigning for Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Telangana ended on Wednesday evening, ahead of the December 7 polls.
Campaigning for Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Telangana ended on Wednesday evening, ahead of the December 7 polls.
Counting of votes will take place on December 11.
Rajasthan
The high-decibel campaign in Rajasthan witnessed hundreds of election rallies and road shows across the state. As many as 2,274 candidates including 189 women are in the fray for 199 out of a total 200 constituencies.
Election in Alwar district's Ramgarh constituency has been postponed due to the death of the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate.
Electioneering ended at 5 pm today. Polling will take place from 8 am to 5 pm on December 7 in 199 constituencies, Rajasthan's chief electoral officer Anand Kumar said.
He said elaborate security arrangements have been made for free and fair polls.
There are 4.77 crore registered voters in Rajasthan.
In the BJP ruled state, the electioneering initially focused on farmers' issues, corruption and the youth.
The campaign also raised issues related to Hindutva, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi sparred over 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' slogans, and there was a row over the caste of Lord Hanuman.
Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and several other Union ministers campaigned in the state, which the Bharatiya Janata Party is fighting to retain.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also crisscrossed the state, travelling by road and by air and addressing at least five meetings a day.
The Congress fielded Rahul Gandhi, party's state unit chief Sachin Pilot and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot in the campaign for the closely contested elections.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati also campaigned in the state. The contest is mainly between the BJP and the Congress candidates in about 130 seats.
About 50 other seats will see contests in which rebel candidates from both major parties are in the fray, refusing to step down in favour of the official nominees.
Telangana
The high pitched campaign bin Telangana, which saw political heavy weights like PM Modi and Congress chief criss-crossing the state addressing rallies, ended Wednesday.
Leaders from across political parties, including BJP Chief Amit Shah, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Chief Ministers of various states, Union Ministers and several others conducted election rallies and roadshows to woo voters in the state.
Hinting at a possible future political direction, Rahul Gandhi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu shared dais for the first time.
Congress formed the "people's Front" with Telugu Desam Party (TDP), CPI and Professor M Kodandaram-led Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), while the TRS and BJP are going it alone.
CPI(M)-led Bahujan Left Front is also in the fray.
"Mental," "420," "Chor," "Gaddar," "betrayer," "Broker" and "Cheat" were some of the words used by some political leaders during their speeches in various meetings, as campaigning heated up in the last few days.
Sonia Gandhi addressed one public meeting, while Modi addressed three election rallies.
Rahul Gandhi threw his weight fully behind the campaign, addressing over a dozen public meetings and road shows.
Highlighting his government's achievements, Telangana caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao addressed about 90 meetings, seeking a second term for the TRS.
Naidu also participated extensively in road shows and meetings, raising the election "fever." Modi in his speeches highlighted the "family rule" of TRS and Congress even as he and Amit Shah maintained that reservations for Muslim Minorities, proposed by the Telangana government, was "anti-constitutional."
KCR, as Rao is referred to by many, largely talked about the achievements of his government and slammed Modi for not giving consent to the state's Muslim quota bill and Congress-TDP for "unholy tie up."
Amit Shah described AIMIM as a party of "Razakars," while Akbaruddin Owaisi, brother of AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, kicked up a row by saying that whoever becomes chief minister of Telangana should "bow their head" to his party.
Huge sums of unaccounted cash and illegal liquor and other goods were seized since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect on September 27.
As per the last count, the total seizures stood at nearly Rs 120 crore, including unaccounted cash, illegal liquor and other goods.
(With PTI inputs)
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