Elections for 224 seats in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly will be held today, and the results will be declared three days later. The last several weeks have seen an intense electoral battle between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the two main Opposition parties — the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular). The election manifestos of these parties and their campaign rhetoric indicate how the Karnataka Assembly elections herald the start of a nearly year-long period of hectic political activity in the country, with four more major state Assembly elections to be held in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana in the next few months, and finally the general elections to be held in 2024. The obvious question is: What message do the Karnataka Assembly elections convey about the likely nature of the electoral battle that lies ahead?