Friday was the last day of campaigning for the 2019 parliamentary election. Everyone will heave a sigh of relief that the campaigning is finally over. This was one of the most toxic elections witnessed in the history of India. In terms of the quality of campaign, it was very poor. The campaign was vitriolic in nature, with plenty of personal attacks on one another by the top campaigners. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was at the forefront of launching personal attacks on the opposition leaders.
The opposition leaders too made several personal attacks on Modi. Also, it was an election which saw leaders from the past being dragged into the campaign. Rajiv Gandhi and the Bofors scam were made an election issue in the middle of the campaign by Modi. During the last few days of campaigning, a few BJP leaders tried to discredit the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, by declaring his killer Nathuram Godse as a nationalist. Though top BJP leaders, including the PM himself, criticized these leaders, their act was in extremely bad taste. Also, this election witnessed several attempts to polarize the voters on religious lines. The toxic atmosphere created by the polarized election campaign will take some time to get over. Now the whole nation will wait for 23 May to know the election results.