Delhi ready to vote in high-pitched 3 cornered electoral battle

NEW DELHI Feb 6 (agencies): It is a high-pitched electrifying three cornered electoral battle that the national capital has never witnessed before.
Allegations have flown thick and fast to malign opponents, the tallest leaders of the three main contenders - Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and Congress - have descended on Delhi's foggy street corners, and parties have left no stone unturned to woo votes in a campaign of little more than 15 days, one of the shortest in the recent past.
While opinion polls have overwhelmingly favoured the AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP has pulled out all stops to remain in the race to form the next government in Delhi, a move it feels will reiterate Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's popularity.
The Congress appeared to be out of contention though its campaign chief Ajay Maken tried his best to occupy some media space during the campaign, which, like the 2014 general election, was the subject of 24x7 coverage by TV news channels in the past week. Kejriwal began with the distinct advantage of being an early starter by hitting the roads more than three months ago. On the other hand, the AAP's arch-rival BJP was riding high on the success of the "Modi wave" in assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, and believed that the prime minister would clinch Delhi for the party.  
But Delhi has been a different ball game from the states where the BJP did well. Unlike the states where the party was in the opposition, there was no anti-incumbency in favour of the BJP in Delhi, where it is in power in the three municipal corporations, and its nominee, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, has been in-charge of the Delhi government since Modi took over as prime minister.
Identifying its main rival as Kejriwal, the BJP targeted him for resigning after just 49 days as Delhi's chief minister in February 2014, and called him an "anarchist" and a "Naxalite". Realising that his resignation was a weak spot, Kejriwal was quick to apologise and assure the people that he would not commit the same mistake again.
The lukewarm response to some of Bedi's rallies pushed the BIP to seek reinforcements, with its star campaigner Modi chipping in with four rallies. The party also deployed 120 MPs, more than a dozen cabinet ministers and chief ministers of eight states to campaign in the capital.
Meanwhile: The Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, on Friday appealed to people to vote for the AAP in the election to the Delhi Assembly but the offer of support was swiftly rejected by Arvind Kejriwal's party.
 "We don't need the support of a man who did not invite India's prime minister but invited Pakistan's prime minister for his son's appointment. One has to respect the prime minister of the country," senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh told a news conference.
 During his sermon at the Friday prayers, the controversial Shahi Imam had called on people to vote for the AAP in the polls Saturday. The AAP and the BJP are the main contenders for power in the elections.
But AAP leaders described Bukhari's politics as "regressive and communal" and condemned the ideology he represents.
"AAP wants to finish off communal politics. We want to finish off what the imam stands for. We want the support of every common man," said AAP leader Ashish Khaitan.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley too reacted to Bukhari's remarks by saying: "Shahi Imam Bukhari's diktat to support the AAP may backfire."
 Last year, Bukhari had sent an invitation to Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif for a ceremony to appoint his son as his successor. He had also said he was not inviting prime minister Narendra Modi as he had "no place" in his heart for the BJP leader.
In this electrifying election season, opinion polls have shown that Kejriwal has consolidated his position since December 2014, and an aggregate of these surveys have predicted a majority government for him. The polls gave BJP the second position with about 30 seats and the Congress was a poor third with four to six seats in the 70-member assembly.
Though the fight in Delhi is being seen as one between Kejriwal and Modi, the fate of the 637 candidates in the fray - about 17 % of them having criminal cases pending against them - will be locked in about 1 lakh electronic voting machines on Saturday.
And the winners in this keenly contested electoral match will be announced on Tuesday, February 10. It will be interesting to see whether Kejriwal will form the new government on February 15, exactly a year after he had quit as Delhi's chief minister after failing to push through the Jan Lokpal Bill, a proposed anti-corruption law.