Campaign for fifth phase poll ends today

FINAL LAP: People watch during an election rally at Bandipora near Srinagar on Sunday.

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New Delhi: Campaigning for the fifth and final phase of Lok Sabha elections 2009 ends on Monday evening with political parties trying to organise in as many rallies as possible to woo voters ahead of May 13 polls.

Political parties are also busy wooing one another and keeping options open for post-poll alliances.

Some prominent candidates whose fates would be decided in the final round are Congress' P Chidambaram and Mohammad Azharuddin, Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam's (DMK) Dayanidhi Maran, T R Baalu and A Raja, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (MDMK) Vaiko, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party's Jaya Prada.

Manmohan Singh will be campaigning in Ludhiana and Amritsar while L K Advani and Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekhar Rao, too, will be in Amritsar.

BJP President Rajnath Singh will be touring Hoshiarpur and Shatrughan Sinha will be holding a rally in Chandigarh.

Himachal Pradesh, which is aklso voting on May 13, will see Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi holding rallies in Hamirpur and Mandi wheras Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi will be wooing voters in Kullu and Una.

Several leader will be campaigning in Uttar Pradesh also. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj will be addressing rallies in Bareilly, Congress candidate Mohammad Azharuddin will be visiting Moradabad.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will hold a rally in Bijnor. Mulayam's son Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad will be campaigning in Rampur.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati will be addressing a rally at Hardwar in Uttarakhand.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya will hold a rally in Kolkata. Mamata Banerjee and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat will also be campaigning in Kolkata.

Unlike previous elections, where parties fought on national issues, local issues seem to be the deciding factor for voters this time.

But General Elections 2009 has been characterised by personal attacks and hate speeches.

However, shoe attacks on political leaders would be the defining moments.

The first politician to get the boot was P Chidambaram when journalist Jarnail Singh threw a sneaker at the Union Home Minister, protesting the Central Bureau of Investigation clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

It turned out to be potent weapon. Congress dropped Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as candidates as protests mounted.

A shoe also hurled at Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L K Advani at a rally in Madhya Pradesh. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had a shoe hurled at him during an election rally.