By Our Special Correspondent
Bangalore, May 9: A day ahead of the first phase of elections to Karnataka’s Assembly, the Intelligence Bureau has given the Congress the edge with 40 seats, a surprisingly robust 28 seats to the Janata Dal (S) and only 18 seats to the BJP in the 89 seats that go to the polls on Saturday.
The 89 Assembly constituencies are spread across 11 districts in the southern belt. About one lakh polling officials and 58,000 security personnel have been drafted for the exercise. The Congress, BJP and JD(S), the major parties in the fray, have fielded candidates in all the segments facing elections in this phase while the BSP is contesting 86.
For all key players, particularly the Congress and BJP, the focus has been on Bangalore city, which accounts for 28 seats of the 89. There are 17 women candidates in the fray. The BJP has the highest number of candidates, five, followed by the Samajwadi Party with three, the Congress with two and JD(S) with one.
In 2004, which threw up a three-way fractured verdict, the BJP won 79 seats, Congress 65, JD(S) 58 and JD(U) five. The Kannada Nadu, CPI(M), Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha and RPI won one each while one Independents was victorious.
Karnataka is the first state to go to the hustings after the delimitation of constituencies. The electioneering this time was shorn of banners, buntings and posters following curbs imposed by the Election Commission. Public meetings were fewer compared to the previous elections which witnessed high-voltage campaigns.
Left with little choice, candidates had to undertake door-to-door campaigns to impress voters. The Bangalore city police has made elaborate arrangements to avoid any untoward incidents in Bangalore in the first phase. City police commissioner N. Achutha Rao said around 13,000 policemen will guard the city’s 5,685 booths and ensure that bogus voting does not happen in sensitive booths.
Likewise, all constituencies will have CPF, KSRP and CAR companies guarding them. Mr Rao said his personnel have identified 2,000 hyper-sensitive and 2,000 sensitive booths in the city. "In order to avert any untoward incident, rowdy elements have already been arrested. The staff has been instructed to watch for rowdy-sheeters who have managed to flee. If they are found anywhere near booths on Saturday they will be arrested."
The campaign saw the Congress, BJP and the JD(S) engage in a bitter war of words with accusations traded on the collapse of the erstwhile JD(S)-BJP government, the Bellary mining scam, the price rise and the "betrayal" of the BJP among others. The Congress, despite the usual rift between senior leaders like S.M. Krishna and Mallikarjun Kharge, is making a strong bid to regain its base in the old Mysore districts and come to power again.
It is now or never for the BJP, which could not come to power in 2004 despite emerging the largest party. The party has been harping on the betrayal of its veteran leader and chief ministerial candidate, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, who could remain chief minister for only a week after the JD(S) pulled the rug from under his feet. What has disappointed many BJP supporters is the fact that the huge wave of support for Mr Yeddyurapa after Mr Deve Gowda and his sons pulled him down in October 2007 has melted away, forcing the party to focus on other issues, including inflation and the need for single-party rule.
There are many who feel, and not without reason, that the JD(S) could well see a big fall in its seat tally this election. In 2004, the JDS, made surprise inroads into several Congress bastions and won 34 constituencies in the old Mysore belt with a good showing in the Vokkaliga-dominated belts of Mandya, Hassan and Tumkur. What has hurt the JD(S) is the exit of many of its senior leaders, including former deputy chief ministers Siddaramaiah and M.P. Prakash, who joined the Congress and are now leading campaigners for that party.
In the second phase, 66 constituencies will go to the polls on May 16 followed by the final phase on May 22. Karnataka has 224 Assembly seats.
