High-pitched poll campaign in Delhi ends as city votes on Sunday 

Microphones fell silent as weeks of high-octane poll campaigning in the national capital, that had all elements of a political soap opera, ended Friday evening.

The campaigning witnessed an attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, acrimonious exchanges between the AAP and the BJP over allegations of horse-trading, rivals jabbing at one another over alleged discrepancies in affidavits and even a candidate of the ruling party in Delhi breaking down in a press conference.

As many as 164 candidates, including 18 women, are in the fray for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi which goes to polls on Sunday under the sixth phase of the general elections.

It is expected to be a three-cornered fight involving the BJP, AAP and the Congress in the seven parliamentary seats of the national capital all of which were won by the saffron party in 2014.

Prominent candidates in the fray include veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, Olympian boxer Vijender Singh, Union minister Harsh Vardhan, Atishi from AAP and her BJP rival cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir.

Voting will begin at 7 am on May 12 and scheduled to go on till 6 am.

The 48 hour-period from 6 pm Friday to 6 pm Sunday, known as the silence period, will also be observed as 'dry day'.

Earlier in the day on Friday, Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh told reporters, "The campaigning will end this evening as the 48-hour silence period will kick in at 6 pm today which would stay till 6 pm on Sunday."

A total of 13,819 polling stations will be set up at 2,700 locations in Delhi, with one model polling station in each of the 70 assembly segments. Seventeen polling stations will be staffed only by women.

As many as 523 polling locations have been identified as critical, Singh said, adding, "Special paramilitary forces will be deployed there, besides webcasting and CCTV facilities. Micro-observers would also be there. We have made all arrangements for smooth polling."

Beyond Friday's 6 pm limit, no campaigning shall be allowed, including on social media, Singh said at the press conference, adding, "All print ads need to be pre-certified for publication in any newspaper."

Before the announcement of the silence period, the AAP had scheduled to hold campaigns at few places beyond 6 pm, but the party claimed those events were cancelled.

The campaign which got off to a slow start as alliance talks between the AAP and Congress lingered on till the last days of nomination, gained momentum over the last fortnight with senior leaders drawing huge crowds at mega rallies and road shows in the national capital.

It reached a crescendo in its last lap with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a massive rally at the iconic Ramlila Maidan here, Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressing two public meetings, while his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra taking out two road shows in the city.

The campaign also saw cine stars -- Hema Malini, Sunny Deol, Prakash Raj, Swara Bhaskar -- garnering support for the candidates.

From trying to strike a personal chord with the voters in parks at six in the morning to holding door-to-door campaigns till late night, the candidates literally sweated it out in the oppressive heat as mercury crossed the 40-degree Celsius mark.

While the BJP's campaign revolved around the party's high-pitched nationalism narrative and the popularity of Modi, the Congress kept him in the cross hairs and sought to hard sell its minimum income guarantee scheme -- Nyay.

The AAP, on the other hand, focussed on the demand for full statehood for Delhi.

Candidates also tried to out-manoeuvre each other before the poll body. AAP candidates Atishi and Raghav Chadha sought rejection of nomination papers of their BJP rivals Gautam Gambhir and Ramesh Bidhuri, respectively.

Poll officers were also hard-pressed as several Model Code of Conduct violations were reported.

In a security breach, Chief Minister Kejriwal was slapped by a man during a roadshow in Moti Nagar. Allegations of horse trading flew thick and fast as two AAP MLAs -- Anil Bajpai and Devinder Sehrawat -- crossed over to the BJP.

The campaigning also saw South Delhi BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri using a Hindi slur against Kejriwal. On a penultimate day, the AAP and the BJP sparred over a derogatory pamphlet that targeted Delhi's ruling party candidate Atishi.

The AAP alleged her rival Gautam Gambhir was behind it, a charge the former cricketer vehemently denied.

According to the summary of the electoral roll published on April 23, there are over 1.43 crore voters in Delhi -- 78,73,022 male and 64,42,762 female, while 669 belong to the third gender.

While 2,54,723 voters are in the age group of 18 and 19, there are 40,532 electorates with disability who would be provided pick up and drop facility.

As many as 2,674 complaints were found on 'cVigil' app out of which 2,057 were found to be correct. Nearly 270 FIRs and daily diary (DD) entries were registered against political parties and others here till date for violation of poll code, officials said.

The statistics surveillance team of Delhi's Chief Electoral Office, constituted to keep an eye on the expenses of political parties, has seized Rs 4.38 crore in cash and 1,411 kg of narcotics and drugs till date.

Police have registered 1,378 FIRs and arrested 1,381 people under the Excise Act. They have also seized 691 unlicensed arms and weapons, and 3,007 cartridges and explosives, a statement said, adding 1,14,482 people have been booked till date under various sections of the CrPC and the Delhi Police Act.