Karnataka Polls: Fight To The Finish

With the BJP pulling out all the stops, the congress putting up a united front and the JD(s) playing the dark horse, the may 10 assembly election in karnataka is poised for a no-holds-barred battle at the hustings

- RAJ CHENGAPPA & AJAY SUKUMARAN

Like many chief ministers who have governed Karnataka in the past, the incumbent, Basavaraj Bommai of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), does not stay in Anugraha, the sprawling chief ministerial residence in the heart of Bengaluru. Many of his predecessors believed that the official residence was unlucky and stayed elsewhere. Bommai, too, preferred to remain in the house that his father, the former chief minister S.R. Bommai, built in RT Nagar. But rather than superstition, he was perhaps driven more by convenience and pragmatism. Bommai was given just 21 months to rule after he replaced party stalwart B.S. Yediyurappa midway through his term. The odds of retaining power in this crucial southern state are stacked against the BJP as it has been over 38 years since an incumbent government in the state was voted back to power. Bommai and the BJP, though, hope to buck the trend. As the battle for Karnataka reaches the home stretch with polling for the assembly election due on May 10, the two main contenders—the BJP and the Indian National Congress—are engaged in a fierce fight to the finish.

THE HIGH-STAKES BATTLE