As has been his routine for some weeks now, Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan spent the eve of Nomination Day distributing fliers and greeting rush-hour commuters at Bukit Batok MRT station.

"I'm beginning to feel like a permanent fixture here," he said in a Facebook post yesterday, which included pictures of him posing with commuters.

Dr Chee, 53, also had breakfast at one of the coffee shops in the constituency, where he is vying against People's Action Party (PAP) candidate Murali Pillai, and possibly others, in the May 7 by-election.

Both will know if the contest will be a straight fight when they turn up this morning to file their papers at Keming Primary School, the nomination centre for the election.

Social media has been a key tool for both men in their outreach to residents since the March 12 resignation of the PAP's MP for Bukit Batok, Mr David Ong, over an alleged affair.

The SDP, which has adopted the campaign slogan "Now is the time", promised to roll out four social initiatives for Bukit Batok residents should Dr Chee be elected.

These programmes, which target youth, the needy and the elderly, were formulated as existing social assistance programmes have not gone far enough, he said when unveiling them last Friday.

The party has a four-man team to act as a resource panel to advise it on town council issues in the first 100 days if Dr Chee is elected.

Dr Chee, who has promised to be a full-time MP, has assured residents that the SDP has the resources to take over the town council.

In the evening, he was back at the Bukit Batok train station.

He ended his Facebook post saying: "Anyway, will let you know if there's a disruption in service."

It was a reference to the breakdown of train services on Monday night, which affected Bukit Batok, among other MRT stations. Dr Chee was there when the incident happened and posted about it.