Hyderabad: The hectic and high-voltage campaign for the Lok Sabha polls ended on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a rally at Hoshiarpur in Punjab. The voting for the seventh and the last phase for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be held on June 1 and as per the rules, the campaign ended on Thursday evening.
The Prime Minister, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign, addressed a total of 206 public-outreach programmes, including rallies and roadshows, since the Election Commission (EC) announced the poll schedule on March 16.
The PM surpassed his nearly-145 public engagements on the stump during the 2019 polls by a big margin. The campaign period this time was of 76 days, compared to the 68 days in the polls held five years ago. Prime Minister Modi has also given 80 odd interviews where in he highlighted the achievements of his government in the last 10 years.
The PM on Thursday attacked the Congress for ranting about the Constitution when it was the one that strangled it during the Emergency and not care about it when Sikhs were killed in the 1984 riots.
"Sikhs were killed after putting burning tyres around them. At that time, they did not care about the Constitution," Modi said in his last poll rally in the seven-phase election.
The PM has lashed out at the Opposition INDIA bloc led by Congress and also invoked 'Mangalsutra' and 'Mujra' during the hectic campaign to hit out at the grand-old party and its allies.
Apart from the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda were the other prominent campaigners for the BJP, which is aiming to form the government at the Centre for a third successive time.
A host of Union Ministers, including Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar, Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur, Giriraj Singh, Narayan Rane, Mansukh Mandaviya, also campaigned for the saffron party. They also attacked the Congress and other India bloc parties.
The Congress campaign was led by former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting the polls from Wayanand in Kerala and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi was brutal in his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. Apart from Rahul, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders Shashi Tharoor, Prithviraj Chavan, Digvijaya Singh, Ashok Gehlot campaigned for the grand old party.
Kharge on Thursday exuded confidence that the INDIA bloc will secure a clear majority in the Lok Sabha polls and give the country an inclusive and nationalistic government.
People endorsed their view that "it will be the end of democracy if the current government gets another chance", Kharge said while addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi on the last day of campaigning for the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
INDIA bloc leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray also campaigned extensively for the candidates fielded by their respective parties.
BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik also campaigned in Telangana and Odisha for their party's candidates respectively.
