Chandigarh, January 28
The high-voltage campaigning for the January 30 Assembly elections in Punjab came to an end today evening with both the ruling SAD-BJP alliance and the Opposition, the Congress, putting in last-ditch efforts to woo the electorate.

The fate of 1,078 candidates in the fray from all 117 constituencies would be sealed in Electronic Voting Machines in 19,841 polling stations across the state. The results would be declared five weeks later on March 6.

With the Election Commission proving to be mightier than the power-wielding politicians this time, the usual poll din remained missing in the state and efforts were made to check use of black money, liquor and narcotics to garner votes.

The canvassing by and large remained peaceful with top national leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, BJP leaders Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharti and BSP supremo Mayawati coming to campaign for their respective candidates.

The Election Commission wielded its baton effectively and took to task those violating the model code of conduct, besides confiscating huge quantities of liquor and narcotics. The poll panel also kept a hawk’s eye on the expenditure of candidates and did not allow defacement of public property to a considerable extent.

Even as the Shiromani Akali Dal blamed the state election commission chief of bias, poll officials issued 780 notices to different candidates for violating the code of conduct and even frisked government officials to rein in flow of black money and liquor.

Former top bureaucrat DS Guru and top cop PS Gill, who are contesting from Bhadaur and Moga constituencies, respectively, may have resented being under the EC scanner 24X7 as they were placed under special surveillance, but the electorate felt that a message went out loud and clear that the candidates could not hoodwink the commission. Besides Guru and Gill, even Additional Director General of Police Mohd Mustafa, who is purportedly on medical leave, is under surveillance in his house in Hathoa village in Amargarh.

Besides transferring Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Sharad Satya Chauhan, the EC gave orders of shifting SSP (Vigilance) Ludhiana, SS Mand, out of Punjab. Mand was made an election observer in Uttrakhand.

To ensure the candidates do not breach the expenditure ceiling of Rs 16 lakh, poll officials maintained shadow registers of candidates in their constituencies. This ensured that not much money was spent on campaigning, including vehicles and loud speakers.

Cracking the whip on officials, who were accused of helping candidates, more than 100 government employees were transferred and nearly 25 were suspended.