Campaigning ends as parties give their best shot

JAIPUR: On the final day of campaigning on Saturday, Congress candidates in Jaipur city and Jaipur rural parliamentary constituencies preferred to hold roadshows rather than address rallies like they had been doing till now.


On both the seats, the Congress fielded women candidates, who, unlike their BJP counterparts, decided to go for the roadshows without any "star power". From the city seat, Jyoti Khandelwal went out in the Walled City areas with party leaders like AICC general secretary Avinash Pande, party whip Mahesh Joshi, MLAs Amin Kagzi and Rafiq Khan. In the rural seat, Krishna Poonia had just minister Lal Chand Kataria, who was MP from the constituency in 2009-2014.

Khandelwal's road show started from the PCC headquarters and entered the Walled City from Chandpole after prayers at the

Hanuman

temple there. Large number of people on foot as well in vehicles caused a traffic jam in the area, causing inconvenience to daily commuters. Singing and dancing on patriotic tunes, the road show moved slowly towards Chhoti-Badi Chaupar and Ramganj.

Olympian Poonia held roadshows in Jhotwara, Shahpura and

Kotputli

assembly areas. The show started early morning from Kalwad road in Jhotwara. People were standing along the road at certain intervals to greet the party candidate. At few places, Poonia addressed the people who had gathered in her support.

The last day of campaigning in Jaipur by the BJP is marked with road shows with an element of Bollywood tadka to woo voters in the last minute effort on Saturday. Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje held roadshows for party's Jaipur candidate Ramcharan Bohra and Jaipur rural candidate Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore received a mixed response by the people. The campaign for the second phase scheduled on May 6 was over at 5 pm.

Raje started off from Govind Devji temple at 10 am in a jeep received a grand reception at several places. At Johri Bazaar, the party workers firecrackers, garlanded Raje and Bohra. The party workers continue to raised slogans 'Modi Modi' till the end while seeking support to BJP candidate Bohra. Raje didn't disappoint anyone by allowing the people to take selfies. She appealed people to vote for Bohra.

The former CM took leave from Sanganeri gate and head Jhotwara to Join Rathore's roadshow. Soon the roadshow was joined by the Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, who made a guest appearance at 2:30 pm. He was expected to cover some kilometres but cut short his trip within 10 minutes.

Even during his brief time, he enthralled the people who came to see him. Known for his action-packed movies and dialogue deliveries, Deol didn't disappoint anyone by called out his famous dialogue from his movie Damini said, "Yeah Dhai Kilo ka hath jab kisi pe padta hai to nahi the hai. (When this 2.5-kilo hand hammered nobody will recover)" Jaipur Rural candidate Rathore adds that Yeah hath jab Congress pe padega to who uth nahi yayege (When this hand hammered on Congress it will never recover).

Union minister Nitin Gadkari came and appealed public to vote for Arjun Ram Meghwal the sitting BJP MP and its candidate from

Bikaner

while actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol reached at Churu and urged public to vote for BJP and its candidate Rahul Kaswan at Churu. Chief minister, Ashok Gehlot and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot also remained busy outside Jaipur in campaigning for party candidates while former chief minister Vasundhara Raje had a road show in Jaipur.

On the other hand, chief minister Ashok Gehlot visited Hanumangarh, Raisinghnagar, Gharsana in support Bharat Ram Mehgwal and Nawalgarh for Shravan Kumar.

A mammoth gathering was witnessed at Churu where actor-turned politician Sunny Deol landed at police lines helipad to participate in a road show in support of Rahul Kaswan, BJP candidate from Churu.