File photo: BJP President Amit Shah.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Saturday morning, "As Delhi votes today, urging voters to go out & vote in large numbers. I particularly call upon my young friends to vote in record numbers."
In morning newspapers, a full page BJP ad demonstrated how to vote for its symbol, the lotus, provoking early morning complaints from chief rival in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party.
While the PM has tweeted that message in every recent state election, many more BJP leaders followed suit this morning. Including party president Amit Shah, who tweeted, "The future of Delhi lies in your finger, please participate in large numbers & vote. #DelhiVotes,"
Facing tough competition from Arvind Kejriwal's AAP, the BJP is said to link its chances of a win in Delhi with a big voter turnout. Only, Delhi'ites voted 13 months ago and getting the 1.3 crore voters to the polling booths today is being seen as a challenge.
"Get out and vote" was also the message that thousands of BJP workers carried door to door in Delhi hours before polling began. They were set stretch targets for the outreach by Amit Shah in a re-calibrated strategy to ensure that supporters come out to vote today.
Mr Shah, who is credited with the BJP's winning strategy in the Lok Sabha elections and recent state elections, micromanaged the Delhi election campaign as AAP seemed to gain momentum. He set specific targets for booth workers, tasking each with making contact with at least 30 families and that too four times before polling.
"In each house we know our voters and will ensure they come out early and vote, then we will work on the undecided," said a BJP worker as he handed out a printed party letter to a local resident on Saturday. Each letter has details of the candidate from the area.
While the BJP roped in two lakh booth workers for the massive door-to-door outreach campaign, the AAP has relied on its volunteers to counter the campaign in the final hours in the run up to polling.