Whether anti-incumbency and Mumbai terror attacks overthrow Congress from power after nearly a decade in the national capital will be decided on Monday after counting of votes for the Delhi assembly polls. Politicians are keeping their fingers crossed with their fate sealed in ballot boxes on November 29 when 69 out of the 70 constituencies went to polling. The voting for Rajendra Nagar seat was rescheduled to December 13 after BJP candidate Puran Chand Yogi allegedly committed suicide. Counting will be held on Monday at ten centres across the city from eight a.m. amid tight security which included deployment of personnel from Delhi Police and paramilitary. Out of a total of over 1.05 crore voters, 57.72 per cent exercised their franchise to elect their representatives from 863 candidates on the polling day. There was a jump in the polling percentage this year compared to that of 53.42 per cent in 2003 and 48.99 per cent in 1998. Political parties are anxious about the outcome as to how this increase in voting percentage would affect their prospects. Both the Congress and BJP camps have expressed hope that they would "win the confidence" of Delhiites. Congress is confident of its track record on development to ensure a record third term at Players Building, the Delhi Secretariat, while BJP is hoping for a comeback after ten years in opposition benches banking on anti-incumbency and "public anger" on Mumbai attacks working against the grand old Party. The BSP will be a force to keep an eye on, with an exit poll predicting 12-15 per cent votes for the party, resulting in a hung assembly for the first time in the 15-year history of Delhi assembly. For Sheila Dikshit, the Chief Minister for the past ten years, this election is a 'do-or-die' battle as the party had given her an almost free-hand in candidate selection, which saw Delhi stalwarts like Union Minister Ajay Maken and Sajjan Kumar MP being sidelined. Though Congress has not declared its Chief Ministerial candidate, the party has given clear indication that if voted to power, Dikshit will have a "third inning". Engaged in a keen electoral tussle, both Congress and BJP are eagerly waiting to see how much ice Mayawati-led BSP can cut even as political pundits feel that the "Elephant's March" could harm the ruling party's fortunes in many seats. The maximum number of candidates in the fray is in New Delhi seat where the fate of 25 candidates, including Dikshit, will be decided on Monday, while only three are fighting for the Ghonda seat. Among prominent faces in the contests are Ministers A K Walia, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Haroon Yusuf, Raj Kumar Chauhan, Mangat Ram Sharma and Yoganand Shastri and BJP's chief ministerial candidate V K Malhotra and party leaders Harsh Vardhan and Jagdish Mukhi. As many as 15 candidates were out to prove their mettle again for the fourth time. Besides Walia, Chauhan and Yusuf, others in this category include Speaker Choudhury Prem Singh, Mukesh Sharma, Mateen Ahmed (all Congress), Mukhi, Harcharan Singh Balli and Jai Bhagwan Aggarwal (all BJP). The election season in the capital began with intense lobbying for party nominations, which turned almost violent with supporters of some aspirants heckling BJP Delhi chief Harsh Vardhan and damaging the car of his Congress counterpart Jai Prakash Aggarwal. Both Congress and BJP burnt midnight oil to finalise their list while BSP went ahead with changing candidates several times after jumping the bandwagon in early April. BJP fielded all its 19 sitting MLAs while Congress dropped three of its 47 legislators from the fray. BJP chose "energetic" Saket MLA Vijay Jolly to take on Dikshit in New Delhi constituency while Congress preferred a lightweight Jitender Kochar, former Leader of House of MCD, to fight Malhotra in Greater Kailash seat. The last week of campaigning saw parties fielding top leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, L K Advani, Narendra Modi and Mayawati to go on an offensive on each other. BJP's new development mascot Modi did a whirlwind tour in the city addressing about ten election meetings raising Congress' alleged "failure" in tackling terrorism and price rise. Congress countered the BJP offensive with Rahul Gandhi, who made his debut in election campaigning in Delhi, claiming that the saffron party was raising the bogey of terrorism as they have "no dreams to offer" on development. On the other hand, BSP focussed its campaign on trying to win over minorities and Dalits besides assuring upper caste voters that it was not against them by offering quota for poor among them. Charges were also traded at each other on a number of local issues like regularisation of unauthorised colonies, sealing and demolitions, BRT corridor, demand for statehood for Delhi and privatisation of power distribution. Besides these, the encounter at Jamia Nagar in south Delhi, in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists were killed, gave Congress' four-month-old ally Samajwadi Party an opportunity to virtually paint the ruling party in an anti-minority light.
