By IANS,
New Delhi : A day ahead of Verdict 2009, major political parties kept their fingers crossed. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters wore a deserted look Friday afternoon with its leaders locked in meetings at party leader L.K. Advani’s residence, the Congress office was abuzz with a battery of mediapersons.
There were lower rung officials crunching numbers at the BJP office on Ashoka Road while their leaders were thrashing out strategies with the elections promising to throw up a hung parliament.
“We are 200 percent sure that we will form the government and not sit in opposition,” BJP’s youth wing leader P.N. Pathak said, putting up a brave face, though several exit polls have predicted that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has an edge.
The book store at the BJP office, which claimed to have seen brisk sales in the run-up to the elections, was deserted.
“Our sales shot up drastically since the campaigning started. Advani’s autobiography ‘My Country, My Life’ is a hot favourite. A close second is ‘Human Integration’ by Deen Dayal Upadhyay,” a party worker at the store said.
At the Congress office at 24 Akbar Road, there was a sense of optimism among the party supporters.
A Congress worker, hanging around at the party office, said: “I am confident we will win because we take people along with us.”
Later, speaking to reporters, senior party leader Kapil Sibal also expressed confidence of a Congress victory.
A worker at the canteen in the Congress headquarters said no special preparations had been made for celebrations in case of victory.
“As of now, no leader has told us anything, we will serve sweets and lassi (buttermilk) to everybody but no special preparations are under way.”