BJP, Cong headquarters - a picture in contrast

It was a tale of contrasting pace of activity at the national headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress on Thursday. BJP national headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road, witnessed a flurry of activity, while rival Congress’ 24, Akbar Road, office was soporific in comparison.

BJP’s canteen staff were busy making thousands of boondi laddoos. At 9, Ashoka Road, adjacent to bungalow number 11, engineers from as many as 40 television channels set up their equipment in enclosures the party provided to each, inside a makeshift hall the size of a football field. One television channel, to look different from the rest of its competition, put up a separate temporary studio. A source said the studio had cost approximately Rs 50 lakh.

Canteen in-charge Rahul Mathur said the target was to make 2,000 kg of laddoos by the time election trends become clear on Friday afternoon. The BJP plans to distribute the laddoos among the thousands of its supporters expected to descend on the party headquarters.

A party source said the BJP would field as many as 40 spokespersons to speak to television channels. It has asked several of its leaders from across India who are not contesting elections to land in Delhi to speak to the media on the counting day.  

The atmosphere was subdued at the Congress headquarters at 24, Akbar Road. Workers went about setting up temporary television studios but neither the party nor television channels made any elaborate arrangements, restricting to the bare minimum. Delhi Police has also made extensive security and traffic arrangements for both Ashoka Road and Akbar Road.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) has put in place extensive preparations for Friday. The EC on Thursday said counting was scheduled to start at 8 am at 989 counting centres across India. It has deployed 1,163 observers to supervise the counting process.

“With a view to maintain utmost transparency during counting process, EC has deployed micro observers at each counting table and instructed returning officers to give printout of each counting round and of each EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) to the candidates’ agents,” an EC official said. There are 8,251 candidates in the fray. Of these, 1,591 candidates represent national parties; 2,897 state parties; 2,897 candidates are from registered unrecognised parties and 3,234 independents.