Click to play videoNew Delhi: The bitter election campaign in Gujarat draws to a close on Friday.
Polling for 95 seats in the central and eastern districts of Gujarat will take place on Sunday. They include: Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana Banskantha, Patan, Sabarkantha, Dahod, Kheda, Panchmahal, Vadodara and Anand. The districts that had witnessed the worst of post-Godhra violence will also vote on the same day.
The most prestigious among them is Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, Maninagar. Congress has fielded Union Minister Dinsha Patel from here. Former deputy CM Narhari Amin, who is contesting from Matar, is the other prominent candidate in this round.
The BJP had won a majority of these seats in the 2002 polls but opinion polls are predicting a tough battle for the party this time around.
Not surprisingly, personal attacks from the BJP and the Congress camps have intensified in the campaigning for this crucial round despite notices by the Election Commission and the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Modi's verbal attack on Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continued.
The latest one came on Thursday, the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament.
“I am asking for votes and making the government on the development issue only. I have come here for the hisab of my five years of service, and you will all have to give me the same. Soniaben you are not hanging all those who committed the crimes. Then tell me who is saving those criminals? Your Government is functioning like Maut ka Saudagar (merchant of death) and you are blaming me for that. Soniaben, please come down and we will do all the hisab,” he said.
Modi also took on Manmohan Singh in a sharp attack. “Our PM said that the case of the Godhra riots would be reopened and all the culprits would be behind bars. Manmohan Singh threatened me. But Manmohanji you have dialed a wrong number,” he said.
The counting for elections will take place on December 23 and the results will be out on December 26.
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