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Campaign For 22 LS, 154 Assembly Seats Ends Hyderabad: Candidates literally rolled through the constituencies in their vehicles as campaigning ended at 4 pm on Tuesday for the first phase of elections in Andhra Pradesh scheduled for Thursday, April 16. Polling will take place for 22 Lok Sabha and 154 assembly seats in the first phase. Strangely, neither national nor regional issues figured in the campaigning by the major parties unlike in the 2004 elections when Telangana was projected as a major issue. This time around, all the major players mentioned free power in the early part of the campaigning, but as polling nears, have limited themselves to shouting from rooftops about the sops they are offering. If it were the development schemes on the Congress side, the grand alliance trumpeted the cash transfer scheme and free colour TV offer. Of the four main leaders, the fate of only one of them, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao contesting for the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seat, will be sealed in the first phase. Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and PRP chief Chiranjeevi will take on their assembly opponents in the second phase to be held on April 23. While KCR ended the campaign by touring the city on Tuesday, the other three leaders preferred to concentrate on campaigning in those constituencies going to polls in the second phase. Campaigning in the coastal region, the chief minister, Naidu and Chiranjeevi landed in Visakhapatnam by the evening and were closeted with their party leaders devising strategies to win the Vizag Lok Sabha seat. Union minister and Congress candidate D Purandeshwari, TDP’s M V V S Murthy, PRP’s P Srinivas Yadav and BJP’s D V Subba Rao are locked in a fourcornered contest in Vizag LS seat. In fact, the three leaders stayed in the same hotel in the port city while chalking out the strategy for the second phase of elections. The mood was upbeat in both the Congress and the grand alliance camps. Congress sources said the development schemes initiated by the chief minister, including the housing, health and pension schemes should easily carry through the Congress. In the Telugu Desam Party camp, the leaders were confident that the cash transfer and free colour TV offer should swing the electorate in favour of the grand alliance. The PRP too, which has been plagued by desertions and allegations of selling tickets for money, too remained optimistic about its chances with their leaders claiming that Chiru would get simple majority. But what none of the political parties were admitting was the role that money and liquor would play from Tuesday till the morning of polling. “Over the next two nights, our job is to distribute money and liquor and ensure that the voters are brought to the polling booths on Thursday. The real clandestine war between the parties to woo the voters will become full-scale tonight,” said the poll manager of a political party. Last-Minute Efforts Cut No Ice With Voters Hyderabad: On Tuesday, the last day of the campaign, candidates belonging to different political parties were seen making lastminute efforts to reach out to as many voters as possible just before the EC deadline of 4 pm. But Telugu Desam Party TDP didate from Khairatabad K Vijayarama Rao got a hot dressing down from a voter. Talking on his mobile, he entered Bandlines along with his followers. Seeing a 70-year-old woman, he stopped and ended his phone call. Once his gaze fell on the name-plate identifying the householder as F Anthony, Vijayarama Rao picked up conversation with her in English and said: “I am Vijayarama Rao, TDP candidate from this constituency. I request you to vote for our party.” He even stepped into the woman’s house after being egged on by his followers and started explaining to the Anthony family how the Congress, after promising that all the houses in the basti would be regularised, had backtracked. But to Vijayarama Rao’s discomfiture, Kalara Anthony shouted: “It was TDP that traumatised us. Why did you come here only two days before the election? What is your motto? Five years ago, it was the TDP government that had sent truck loads of police to evict us. It was I who fought with the officials to give up the idea of evicting us from here. At least the present government made efforts to regularise our houses and we are told that the work is almost over. There is no way we will vote for you.” An embarrassed Rao tried to explain to her that the Himayatnagar division was earlier not part of the Khairatabad constituency. Seeing an unconvinced Anthony, he had to make a hasty retreat. In other areas the oncebitten-twice-shy Rao just breezed past declining invitations from families to come inside. In another instance, Congress candidate from Jubilee Hills P Vishnuvardhan Reddy was seen waving his hand at all households though no one came out at police quarters in Yousufguda. At Motinagar crossroads under the Kukatpally constituency, TRS candidate M Sudarshan Rao perhaps had doubts about party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao’s crowd-pulling ability at the scheduled public meeting in the area. So, to catch attention of voters, he roped in drama artistes dressed in mythological characters like Krishna, Rama, Hanuman, etc. armed with bows and arrows. After concluding his campaign at Ramnagar in Musheerabad, KCR took part in road shows in Kukatpally, Qutbullapur and Musheerabad constituencies. During his whirlwind campaign, K Chandrasekhar Rao was seen waving to people from inside his campaign vehicle. He addressed meetings at Motinagar and Musheerabad. “There is very little time left for me to go to other constituencies as it is already 3.15 pm. Partymen will be disappointed if I do not visit their constituencies,” said KCR during his speech at Ramnagar. Though he tried to race against time he could not cover Sanathnagar, Nampally from where TRS candidates are contesting.