The Hindu : Front Page : An acrimonious campaign ends

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Saturday, Dec 15, 2007
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An acrimonious campaign ends

Manas Dasgupta

Final phase of Gujarat elections on Sunday

599 candidates in north and central Gujarat in the fray
4,830 micro-observers appointed to check unfair practices

AHMEDABAD: Proxy war through newspaper advertisements and press statements denouncing rival camps gained momentum in Gujarat as campaigning ended on Friday in the 95 constituencies going to the polls in the second and final phase of elections to the Gujarat Assembly.

In the first phase, elections were held in 87 constituencies in the Kutch-Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions. The second phase on Sunday will decide the fate of 599 candidates in the north and central Gujarat regions. Prominent among these are Chief Minister Narendra Modi, his opponent in the Maninagar constituency, Union Minister of State for Petroleum, Dinsha Patel, and several Ministers in the Modi Cabinet.

A government spokesman said in a statement in Gandhinagar that the State Election Commission had completed all arrangements to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling. Over 1.87 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 20,545 polling booths. He said 574 companies of Central paramilitary forces would be deployed on the polling day to assist the local police in maintaining law and order, while about 1.23 lakh government employees had been deputed for poll duty.

The booths will be monitored on digital cameras. Over 4,830 micro-observers were appointed to check unfair practices and they, carrying video cameras, will trail about 200-odd candidates with a criminal background.

The campaign for this election, that could decide the future of the BJP in the national perspective, was acrimonious. At first, development and the performance by the BJP government in the State and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre remained the central themes. Later, the campaign descended to personal attacks, insinuations and even mud-slinging.

Allegations galore

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ka saudagar” speech sparked a furore and Mr. Modi reportedly retaliated, calling her and the UPA government “protectors of terrorists,” and alleged that they were “encouraging terrorism.”

As the advertisement war intensified, the Congress recalled the “black day” when a Minister in the NDA government took away Masood Azhar, a militant, to Afghanistan; when leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani “saluted” Mohammad Ali Jinnah; when the State government’s official mouthpiece published an article praising Jinnah; and when Pakistan infiltrated Kargil.

There were also two insertions by the newly-created “Brahmins Utkarsha Samiti” appealing to vote out the “anti-Brahmin” Chief Minister, and expressing doubts about the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s consent to publishing an advertisement with his appeal on Thursday to vote for Mr. Modi. The Bharatiya Janshakti Party also appealed to the people to vote against the Modi government.

Mr. Modi, at his public meetings on Friday in Kaira and other central Gujarat constituencies, promptly picked up the Masood Azhar issue and said the publication of the advertisement was proof of the Congress having “lost its head and sense of balance.”

He said it only proved that the Congress had no sentiments for the passengers aboard the plane hijacked to Afghanistan by terrorists.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, that earlier made its stand clear, inserted another advertisement in support of Mr. Modi. But most surprising was an advertisement in the name of a couple of voluntary organisations, which did not talk of any election but recalled the “sacrifices” made by many volunteers for protecting “cows and other innocent animals” during the Bakri-Idd.”

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