New Delhi: The stage is set as the national capital goes to Lok Sabha polls on Sunday where the incumbent BJP, Delhi's ruling AAP and the Congress are locked in a fight on all seven seats.
The Congress is looking to bounce back after ending up at the third spot in the 2014 elections.
The lead up to the polls has not been without drama, with allegations and counter-allegations flying, and it had all the trappings of a soap opera that could give the daily shows a run for their money.
The high-octane poll campaigning in the national capital ended on Friday but not before it saw a plethora of stars descending here to campaign for their respective parties.
If Hema Malini and Sunny Deol provided the Bollywood quotient to the saffron party's campaign, Raj Babbar and Nagma added the star quotient to the Congress. Prakash Raj, Swara Bhaskar and Gul Panag campaigned for the AAP.
From Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being slapped to AAP's East Delhi candidate Atishi breaking down at a press conference over "derogatory pamphlets" to BJP's Udit Raj leaving the party and joining the Congress after being denied a ticket from northwest Delhi, the last two months been quite eventful and have kept everyone on their toes.
The seven seats will see 164 candidates battling it out of which 18 are women.
- North East Delhi
Key contestants: Sheila Dikshit (Congress), Manoj Tiwari (BJP), Dilip Pandey (AAP)
BJP's incumbent MP Manoj Tiwari is up against Dikshit for the Northeast Delhi seat and has already said that her entry has made the poll contest "one of the most interesting in the country". AAP's Dilip Pandey is also in the fray from the seat.
- New Delhi
Key contestants: Meenakshi Lekhi (BJP), Ajay Maken (Congress), Brijesh Goyal (AAP)
BJP's incumbent MP Meenakshi Lekhi is contesting from New Delhi with Ajay Maken, a long time Congress loyalist. The AAP has pitted first time contestant Brijesh Goyal against the two leaders in New Delhi parliamentary constituency.
- Chandni Chowk
Key contestants: Harsh Vardhan (BJP), Jai Prakash Agarwal (Congress), Pankaj Gupta (AAP)
Traders community holds the key in Chandni Chowk, which houses the city's biggest wholesale markets. The opposition is trying to make the GST, sealing and demonetisation the major issues.
Harsh Vardhan is banking on his appeal to all sections of the society along with the respect people have for Prime Minister Narendra Modi while Agarwal is banking on his old connections with local traders community and a shift of Muslim voters towards Congress. Gupta is hoping to get benefits of the schemes launched by Delhi government and popularity of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
- East Delhi
Key contestants: Gautam Gambhir (BJP), Atishi (AAP), Arvinder Singh Lovely (Congress)
The BJP is relying on Modi's popularity and Gambhir's star value, while the AAP is banking on Atishi's personal connection with the voters and Kejriwal's charisma. The Congress is calling both candidates of the BJP and the AAP as "political tourists" and "outsiders" as they are not from East Delhi.
- South Delhi
Key contestants: Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP), Vijender Singh (Congress), Raghav Chadha (AAP)
With Jats and Gujjars along with Poorvanchalis, who hails from eastern UP and Bihar, making a large chunk of 20.67 lakh voters, the candidates are focussing on these groups to win the seat.
- North West Delhi
Key contestants: Guggan Singh (AAP), Rajesh Lilothia (Congress), Hansraj Hans (BJP)
Padma Shri singer Hansraj Hans who started his career with the Shiromani Akali Dal and later shifted to Congress is in the race in North West Delhi with Congress's Rajesh Lilothia and AAP's Guggan Singh who are former members of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
- West Delhi
Key contestants: Balbir Singh Jakhar (AAP), Sh. Pravesh Verma (BJP), Mahabal Mishra (Congress)
The sitting BJP MP Parvesh Verma is pitted against Balbir Jakhar of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress’ Mahabal Mishra in West Delhi. Both the Congress and AAP are hoping to gain from the business community’s anger due to the sealing issue. But the Jat voters in the constituency could be a deciding factor that may help BJP’s Verma.
Voting will begin at 7 am on May 12 and it is scheduled to go on till 6 am.
A total of 13,819 polling stations are set up at 2,700 locations in Delhi, with one model polling station in each of the 70 assembly segments. Seventeen polling stations will be staffed only by women.
As many as 523 polling locations have been identified as critical and 60,000 personnel, including those of the Delhi Police, Home Guards and paramilitary, will be on their toes to ensure that there is no untoward incident.
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