AGARTALA: The high-pitch campaigning for control of Tripura finally came to an end on Friday afternoon, 48 hours before the end on polling on Sunday.
In the country's first straight contest between the Left and Right, BJP, which replaced Congress as ruling Left's principal challenger, drafted its stalwarts, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath for canvassing. CPM depended mostly on chief minister Manik Sarkar and senior leaders such as Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and
Brinda Karat
.
For Congress, Rahul Gandhi canvassed on the last day of campaigning. Besides, Pondicherry chief minister
Oomen Chandy
, former Uttarakhand CM
Haresh Rawat
and former Assam CM
Tarun Gogoi also turned up for electioneering.
But the fear of covert manipulations and possible law and order problems on the last day looms large over the state which has seen strings of poll-related violence even before the election dates were announced. Deputy commissioners of the eight districts have clamped Section 144 CrPC as soon as campaigning ended at 4pm to prevent clashes. According to the Commission, the move is also meant to check distribution of money among voters on the eve of polls.