While the parties appoint a leading worker of the area as the campaign manager, most candidates have brushed them aside to depend on family members or close associates to organise their colourful campaigns.

By far, the most colourful has been Chandni Chowk BJP candidate Vijay Goel, who has managed to rope in a whole bunch of young film stars to campaign for him. The streets of the city were awash with a filmi look with Pooja Batra, Deepti Bhatnagar, Mukul Anand and some other models lending colour to his campaign. And his wife Preeti Goel has been screening, scanning and cajoling supporters to bring the best into the constituency.

Dr Manmohan Singh's daughter Damandeep cobbled together a large group of supporters to make theeconomist-turned-politician's campaign much talked about in the chatteratti circles. His famous supporters include writer Kushwant Singh, painter Anjolie Ela Menon, lyricist Javed Akthar, and former Miss India Nafisa Ali.

In Gandhi Nagar, L K Advani's daughter Pratiba and son Jayant have been in the forefront, organising big daddy's campaign and remote controlling it for him, while Advani tours other parts of the country. The daughter and son duo have been cycling around Gandhinagar seeking votes for their dad.

Heavyweight Madan Lal Khurana, standing from Sadar constituency, using his own clout managed to get wrestler Dara Singh, all dressed in his Hanuman gear, to enthrall the voters in this constituency. And in Karol Bagh, Congress candidate Meira Kumar's husband Manjul Kumar has been the backbone of her campaign.

In Philibit, Maneka Gnadhi, not to be out done by the other Gandhi bahu launched Varun Feroz as her star campaigner. `Baba' has been moving around the constituency on foot seeking votes forhis mama. Of course, the most famous family campaigners have been Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, who have important roles in deciding on what mama wears and whom she will meet.

The style of campaigns has changed over the years with young family members taking over the planning. The idea of a circle of hi-powered friends to rally for Manmohan came from the American electioneering style of using powerful friends and the chatteratti to spread the word around, which his daughter had witnessed. Sahib Singh Verma in Outer Delhi has been using the power of nautanki and folk dance to woo the voters of this essentially rural constituency. And the popularity of the teeny bopper channel, MTV, has prompted the young campaigning crowds to use tattoos, bindis, T-shirts, etc.But whether all this colour and glamour will have an effect on the voter or not, only the results will tell.