Campaigning for Rajasthan assembly, election ends
Loud-speakers and drums fell silent as campaigning in the Rajasthan assembly elections ended at 5 p.m. on Friday.
"The campaigning has come to an end and no candidate or political parties now would be allowed to use loud-speakers or hold rallies in the state," said an election department official.
Now the candidates will spend time on door-to-door canvassing till the voting takes place Dec 1.
Over 4.08 crore voters -- 2.15 crore males and 1.93 crore females -- would decide the fate of 2,087 candidates who are in the fray for the 199 of the 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan.
In Churu assembly constituency, the election has been counter manded following the death of a candidate. It will be held on Dec 13. The voting Dec 1 will take place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday and the counting of votes will be held Dec 8.
Over 47,200 polling booths have been set up across the state. The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are fighting in all constituencies, the National Peoples Party on 150 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for over 100 seats.
The Congress under the leadership of Ashok Gehlot is seeking a second consecutive ter m in power.
At present in 13th house, Congress has 102 members, the BJP 79 and Communist Party of India (Marxist) 3.
The campaign was high-voltage. The Congress campaign concentrated on development and social welfare schemes launched in the state, while the BJP attacked the Congress gover nment on issues of corruption and poor gover nance.
Senior BJP leaders like its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, party president Rajnath Singh, senior leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitely, for mer Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, television actress Smriti Irani, and Bollywood actors Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha were the star campaigners.
For the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary and election campaign committee chair man C.P. Joshi, union Minister Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot spearheaded the poll campaign in the state. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also addressed an election rally in Jaipur.