Campaigning ends amid tension, emotion

hyderabad: it was one last minute rush for all the political parties in the city on sunday as they sought to make the most of the final day of campaigning in the elections to the municipal corporation of hyderabad. while political bigwigs criss-crossed the city in motorcades that brought traffic to a halt at several spots, the rallies by different parties that crossed each other's path led to a few tense moments.the day also had its share of glamour and drama including some emotional scenes. leading the final charge for the ballot was tdp president and chief minister n chandrababu naidu who was at his acidic best — when he was not skipping scheduled public meetings in his whistle stop tour — in trashing the tdp-bjp's rival, majlis-e-ittehadul muslimeen and warning people that mim would turn the city into a cess pool. the other principal contestant, the congress, led its last run from charminar but not before making a point by unfurling what it called a 'solidarity' flag, which in effect was the party flag. the party called on the people to beware of communal parties trying to divide them. the mim, the butt of all criticism in the entire campaign, wrote a different script with its leader sultan salahuddin owaisi pulling on the emotional heart strings of the people at a meeting in darulsalaam. such was owaisi's speech that it reduced many in the audience to tears, including the mim's mayoral candidate mir zulfeqar ali. the theme of his speech was the need for unity among the minorities that had stood the mim in good stead for years. meanwhile, in a sideshow, the majlis bachau tahreek's mayoral candidate dr khayam khan took on the lok satta, a non-governmental organisation, for listing him among candidates with a criminal record who are in the mch poll fray. his warning to lok satta was clear — be prepared to face a defamation suit. the much-needed relief to the people, who have been facing high decibel promises, came from the likes of film star jayaprada, the tdp member of rajya sabha, who toured some parts of the city asking people to vote for the tdp. but as parties tried to go at each other's jugulars, the air also crackled with subdued tension as two rallies — that of mim and congress — crossed paths at the charminar in the morning. similar would have been the case between the tdp and the congress near khairatabad as two convoys, one carrying the congress mayoral candidate d nagender and the other the chief minister, headed into one another. but the cm's convoy avoided a high decibel confrontation by turning off on to the flyover at khairatabad junction while the congress convoy passed on its way to secunderabad. the ostensible reason for the sudden change in the route of the cm's cavalcade was that the level crossing at khairatabad was closed, forcing him to take a longer route to the khairatabad library, where he was to address a street-side meeting. with the curtains falling on the campaign at 5 p.m. on sunday, the parties are now busy forming strategies to ensure voting in their favour.