Selective shock & awe

The "NOMOre wasted votes campaign", which claims to be a non-funded, non-party affiliated effort to help voters identify "secular candidates" most capable of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or National Democratic Alliance candidates in each of the 543 constituencies, launched its "Hakka-Bakka" or shock and awe campaign a couple of days before the seventh phase of polling on April 30. The campaign, mostly online, appealed to "secular voters" to ensure the defeat of BJP leaders contesting in the seventh phase such as Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharati and Murli Manohar Joshi who, it said, were looking "vulnerable". Interestingly, though, the list didn't include either Narendra Modi or L K Advani, both of whose seats, Vadodara and Gandhinagar, went to polls today as well.