Bengaluru: A former prime minister and five chief ministers are set to battle it out in Karnataka on Thursday as the microphones fell silent at the end of campaigning on Tuesday.
Campaigning, at times fired up by vicious rants among political leaders, witnessed intense electioneering by national as well as state leaders. For BJP, hoping for a turnaround in its fortunes after its debacle in Assembly polls last year, the biggest thrust to its campaign came from its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi whose blitzkrieg has generated the momentum the leaders were looking for.
On the other hand, Congress' offensive was led mostly by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, for whom a lot is at stake, as he addressed more than 75 rallies criss-crossing the state, with party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi providing the booster.
Mr. Siddaramaiah is looking at a target of about 20 of the 28 seats as that will act as a counter to any possible attempt within his party to undermine or dethrone him. He, however, maintains no quota has been set by the party top brass and it is a mere speculation that he would have to give up his post if he did not deliver on the 20-seat target.
Mr. Modi addressed 13 rallies in the last four months, 10 after he was declared the prime ministerial candidate, a blitzkrieg the state unit was looking for as Karnataka is its biggest hope in the south to boost its national tally.
Notably, BJP veterans L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj gave a miss to the campaign with no convincing explanation from the state unit which merely said they were preoccupied elsewhere.
The triangular contest involving JD(S), apart from Congress and BJP, would be mostly in Hassan, Mysore, Mandya, Tumkur, Bangalore Rural and Chikkaballapur. Mr. Modi dominated the scene and discourse, with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Rahul Gandhi making him the focal point of their attack.
AAP chief Arvind Kejrival was on a single lap of campaign in Bangalore. AAP is aiming big in Karnataka.
