Karnataka Polls 2018: With all eyes on Saturday, a campaign that turned into a street fight winds up

Ramakrishna Upadhya

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his political opponents have turned the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka into a no-holds-barred street-fight, leading to mixed reactions from the people of the state.

While some believe that the prime minister should have maintained the dignity of his office and not stooped to attack even local leaders on personal level, others say when he was being continuously targeted for the ‘corrupt company’ he kept (with reference to Nirav Modi and Yeddyurappa), Modi had no choice but to hit back with the same language.

Mallappa Govindappa Desai, a marginal farmer in Kankanakoppa, Bagalkot district, said he did not really care for the war of words between political leaders, but would like to know what concrete steps they would take to solve the agrarian crisis. “I like the prime minister’s promise to offer 1.5 times the production cost as support price, but when it will be implemented?” he asked.

Sannappa Fakeerappa of Mudhol said he heard the prime minister keenly when he said the state government had not fully utilised the irrigation funds provided by the Centre. “If all of them are working for the welfare of the people, how is it that there is no coordination?” he wanted to know.

Venkatesh Naik of Bijapur said there was a lot of leakage of money meant for welfare schemes, but no action was being taken against the corrupt officials, which was disappointing.

Having addressed a few public meetings initially and taking a break for over a month, Prime Minister Modi has plunged headlong into campaigning in Karnataka. He is holding rallies in 21 districts over five days, leading up to the end of campaign today – by far the highest number of meetings addressed by a prime minister in a state election.

After the close shave BJP had in Gujarat, Modi perhaps truly believes that he needs to weigh in heavily in every part of the country for his party to do well. After obtaining surprisingly good results in the Northeast and increasing the tally of states ruled by BJP and its allies to 20, he has targeted Karnataka, one of only two major states currently ruled by the Congress.

Though BJP did well in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Karnataka, it does not have a significant presence south of the Vindhyas. When the Karnataka assembly elections were announced, it was assumed that the fight was mainly between Siddaramaiah and Yeddyurappa and the national leaders would have little role to play.

But, the election scene in Karnataka has been dominated by Rahul Gandhi on the one side and Shah-Modi combine on the other. Both parties apparently feel that a good showing here could boost the morale of the workers to the upcoming assembly elections later this year and the battle for the Lok Sabha in 2019.

Rahul Gandhi had a head start, having begun campaigning two months ago and attracting sizeable crowds, but Modi’s blitzkrieg across the state now has completely overshadowed him. In Gadag, Jamakhandi, Hubballi, Raichur, Chitradurga, Mangaluru and Shivamogga, Modi’s rallies have had one to two lakh audiences, confirming his status as a star campaigner.

Having apparently done his homework, Modi spoke about solving the Mahadayi water sharing issue in Gadag, the problems of areca growers in Shivamogga, the power shortage in Raichur, the drinking water issue in Tumakuru – all along blaming Siddaramaiah of being corrupt and a large chunk of money being pocketed by his ministers.

It all started with Siddaramaiah taunting Amit Shah and Modi about projecting a tainted BS Yeddyurappa as chief minister candidate and the BJP of having five ministers who had gone to jail on corruption charges. He claimed that there was no scam in his government and that he had provided the state a clean administration.

Yeddyurappa reminded Siddaramaiah about how he had got a clean chit from the scam-hit Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao about the denotification of 900-acre Arkavathy layout and then shut down the Lokayukta to create an anti-corruption bureau under his direct control. “We will send you and some of your ministers to jail within 24 hours of taking oath” was Yeddyurappa’s retort.

The Twitter war between the BJP and the Congress has reached a crescendo with Siddaramaiah inviting Yeddyurappa for an ‘open debate’ with Modi also being present. The chief minister has also slapped a defamation suit of Rs100 crore against Modi, Amit Shah and Yeddyurappa, asking them to apologise for accusing him of running a “10% commission” government and Modi describing him as “Seeda rupaiyya.”