Page 13 - Old Mysore News Today

This is the second day of his ninth visit to Karnataka ahead of the state assembly elections and the Prime Minister is addressing crowds in Kolar, Belur, Channapatna and Mysuru.

Opinion poll figures show that out of 224 assembly seats in Karnataka, Congress is likely to win 107 to 119, with the BJP finishing a distant second with 74 to 86 seats. The JD(S) can get 23 to 35 seats, as per the survey.

The state will not have a hung assembly, said political scientist Sandeep Shastri.

The state's political tradition has allowed for hung verdicts which have led parties to stitch up anti-ideological alliances and encouraged opportunistic defections.

Overall, the Karnataka election result, to a large extent, will hinge on how much the major parties can safeguard their core vote-banks in key geographies. And the extent to which the Lingayat and Vokkaliga vote may shift

Speaking to reporters in Hubballi, Kateel said, "BJP is making efforts to win more seats in Old Mysore, a JDS stronghold. A lot of publicity work is being done and BJP is also calling star campaigners."

The two traditionally powerful caste groups, Lingayats and Vokkaligas, virtually controlled state politics between 1956 and 1972 and the L-V caste equation powered the Congress’s political hold over Karnataka until the mid-1970s

While the Congress is banking on an anti-incumbency wave that has worked since 1985, the ruling BJP hopes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's massive campaigning from April 29 will see it cross the halfway mark in the 224-member Assembly.

News18 travels through the Kanakapura constituency of Karnataka to understand how the high-profile fight between Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Karnataka minister R Ashoka is panning out

Significant among them are former BJP MLC Ayanur Manjunath, former BJP MLA MP Kumaraswamy, and former Congress MLC Raghu Achar.