With campaigning for the Gujarat assembly polls coming to a close on Tuesday, leaders and cadres of political parties in the arena are now focusing their energies on mobilising their supporters among the 3.5 crore voters to polling booths on December 12.

"Now the entire focus is on ensuring maximum polling on December 12," Bharatiya Janata Party treasurer Ramdas Agarwal, who is in charge for Gujarat, said. "That is our one-point programme."

"We have issued specific directions to workers to concentrate on bringing voters to polling booths and educate them on using electronic voting machines," Agarwal said.

The ruling party is especially worried because of the 'fatwas' [edicts] issued by some Muslim organisations in the state asking the minorities to vote en bloc for the Congress, party sources said.

This might ensure higher than normal voting by the minorities, they added.

The Muslims, who mostly kept away from voting after the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, have vowed to "punish" the party for the post-Godhra riots, political observers said.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his first election rally in Vadodara on Saturday emphasised the importance of exercising the right to franchise in a democracy and urged people to come out and vote.

The Complete Coverage Ask Our Reporters Mail Us Your Response