BENGALURU: As Karnataka goes to polls on May 12, voters across the 222 constituencies will be deciding the fate of the three heavyweight canddiates — chief minister
Siddaramaiah, BJP state president
BS Yeddyurappa and JD(S) state president
HD Kumaraswamy.
Nearly five crore voters will have the final say on whether the Congress will retain power in the state, the BJP will make inroads in the south or the JD(S) will continue to stay relevant in Karnataka as well as national polity.
Aside from the “Lollipop” and “Gabbar Singh Gang” jabs at each other, the BJP and Congress have also given the 2018 Karnataka elections a “personal” and “ugly” touch with "Naamdars" and "Chowkidar" attacks.
Over the last two months, the two national parties have pooled all their resources to indulge in an high voltage campaign with senior leaders traveling the length and breadth of the state.
With as many as 21 rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and over 50 rallies and road shows by the BJP national president Amit Shah, the saffron party used their resources professionaly in “marketing” the party and its fortunes.
Equally, with a more “ground connect”, the Congress tried to woo voters with party president Rahul Gandhi travelling and holding “corner meetings” and rallies in all the 30 districts of the state.
JD(S), banking on a former prime minister and a former chief minister and playing on the emotions of its survival, tried to woo the voters away from the national parties.
The father-son duo of HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy used all their resources to reach out to every corner of the state where their strengths lay.
Both Modi and Rahul took swings at each other, using the Karnataka poll plank as a pretext, as a dress rehearsal for the 2019 elections and discrediting the Congress and BJP respecitvely.
For all the three chief ministerial aspirants, Siddaramaiah from Congress, Yeddyurappa from BJP and Kumaraswamy from JD(S), the 2018 elections is a “do or die” situation.
Siddaramaiah has already declared that the 2018 elections will be his last foray in electoral politics and a “prestige” issue to return to power. For Yeddyurappa it will be a last-ditch effort to salvage his legacy after being brought back from the depths of political oblivion. For Kumaraswamy, it is literally a matter of survival for his regional party and his own political career. Out of power for over a decade, the JD(S) and its leaders need to form a government either on its own or in alliance to remain relevant.
As a result, it is no wonder that berating and denigrating attacks by parties against each other had become the prime focus during the campaigning.
While Shah had earlier dismissed the “personal attacks” as being nothing more than an amplification by the media for TRPs, political analysts believe otherwise.
“Since 1973, when personal jibes were last taken in the Chikkamagalur by-elections against former prime minister Indira Gandhi by George Fernandes, this is perhaps the most personal campaign Karnataka witnessed. There was never a situation where the lack of issues reflected so vividly in election campaigns and personal jibes were used to cover them up,” said political analyst Mahadev Prakash.
Reason: Both the BJP and Congress have been unable to shrug off the corruption tag which has been highlighted time and again.
At the other end, the serious attacks by PM Modi against Siddaramaiah calling his government “10 per cent commission sarkar” and “Siddha Rupaiya” government has also shown that there is a serious dearth of political issues.