Campaigning concludes in Telangana: Vitriolic, yet peaceful

Parties considered ‘Non-Telangana’ also freely solicit votes

KCR steals a march over rivals, tours entire region

Rival parties reel under his sharp comments, move EC

KCR who initially rooted for Dalit CM fell silent later

Pawan campaigns for TDP-BJP combine, singles out KCR

A court orders cops to book Pawan for acerbic remarks

TDP chief mainly attacks KCR, holds about 30 public meetings

Modi, Sushma try to impress on people BJP contribution to Telangana creation

Sonia, Rahul & PM flay KCR, enthuse Congress cadres

TPCC leaders mostly confine themselves to their places

Hyderabad: The blaring loudspeakers have fallen silent and the cacophony of the drums has come to an end in Telangana. The high-voltage campaign for 119 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana drew to a close at 6 pm on Monday when leaders wound up public addresses and workers fanned out for house-to-house canvassing 36 hours ahead of polling. Though the elections are being held immediately after the T Bill was passed by Parliament, the campaign in was absolutely peaceful.

The number of voters is 2,81,75,055, who will decide the fortunes of 265 and 1,669 candidates who are in fray for the Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies respectively. Around four lakh security personnel are being used to ensure peaceful polling on April 30 which is declared as general holiday.

All political party leaders competed with one another in hurling choicest invectives at one another as the campaign entered the final leg. They have taken up the election as a litmus test for their future.

Prominent among those who hit the roads were Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Congress central leaders Digvijay Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh, Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu, film actor and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan, who is supporting BJP-TDP combine, and YSR Congress leaders Jaganmohan Reddy and his sister Sharmila. They carried out a hectic campaign, addressing a number of meetings, rallies and conducting road shows. KCR was ahead of all other parties in his campaign and was successful in reaching out to a large number of people. He addressed about 100 public meetings and around 20 road shows.

As far as the Congress is concerned, Sonia Gandhi addressed three public meetings - one at Nizamabad, Chevella and another at Andhole. During her meetings, she called TRS an opportunistic party. AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi also addressed three meetings. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed one meeting in Nalgonda.

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh was the star campaigner for the Congress party. He visited almost every district of Telangana.

Another minister Gulam Nabi Azad also toured a couple of districts where Muslim voters are in sizeable numbers.

BJP party Telangana unit president G Kishan Reddy addressed about 90 meetings in the region.

All parties vied with one another to claim the credit for carving out of separate Telangana State. Though KCR was caustic in his remarks not only against rivals but also the people from Seemandhra – TDP and others moved EC against him – the speeches took on a virulent form once Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kumar entered the scene and charged up the atmosphere.

Pawan went to the extent of threatening to skin his rivals if they criticized BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi, who, he said, is set to become the first BC Prime Minister of India. A court in Nizamabad directed police to register a case against Pawan and submit a report to it by June 11.

However, KCR strongly hit back at Pawan during the last two days, saying "Everyday, more than ten dogs bark at me, I don't care.” He also lashed out at Modi and called him a “Mad Modi.”

The TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu who covered over 70 Assembly constituencies and addressed about 30 public meetings. He also contributed his bit in taking the politics of mudslinging to a new low. On Sunday, he hurled choicest abuses at the KCR and fired a broadside at the Congress. While addressing series of public meetings in Nizamabad and Karimanagar districts, the TDP chief called KCR the “first betrayer of Telangana.”

Not to fall behind in the race the YSRCP also covered about 70 Assembly constituencies. While Jagan visited about 30 constituencies, Sharmila covered another 40 constituencies. The brother and the sister also indulged in attacking their rivals with high-voltage dialogues.

Another important aspect of this campaign by all top leaders was that all of them used helicopters for the campaign.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal, so far Rs 126 crore of unaccounted cash and 4.57 lakh litres of alcohol was seized during various checks across the state. Around 74 kg gold and 708 kg silver were seized.