Click to play videoNew Delhi: With Delhi Assembly elections only a week away, the poll campaign has reached a fever pitch, with political heavyweights from the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) going out with full force on Sunday to woo voters.
While one tried to reach out to the voters to contain 10 years of anti-incumbency, the other worked towards a toehold in the Delhi Assembly.
Both the Congress and the BSP unleashed their star power in the Capital as Congress president Sonia Gandhi sought a third term for the Sheila Dikshit government. Sonia focussed her attack on the BJP, accusing the saffron combine of communalising terror investigations.
"It is the responsibility of political parties not to associate terrorism with a particular religion,” Sonia said.
Sonia may be seeking votes on the issue of development, but very clearly the Congress is also reaching out to the urban middle class voters, using Malegaon bomb blast investigations to blunt BJP’s anti-terror poll plant.
But Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati feels it is perhaps the best chance of opening her party's account in Delhi assembly.
While it's the first serious attempt by the BSP to enter the Delhi Assembly, the Congress even refuses to acknowledge it’s presence. The party still feels that Delhi presents a bi-polar polity with a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.
With the BSP getting more than 10 per cent votes in the recent corporation elections, Mayawati has fielded candidates in nearly all seats.
“Dr Ambedkar had said that selling your votes is like selling your mother,” Mayawati said.
It’s the first phase of expansion in Delhi for Mayawati’s party, which is clearly targeting the core Dalit votes. The BSP so far has been an untested factor in Delhi elections and it remains to be seen which party she will hurt more and by how much.
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