Podcast | BJP vs Congress: Here’s how things stack up in Karnataka

With under a month to go for the Karnataka Assembly election, Bangalore’s temperature is not the only thing expected to touch 40 degree Celsius this summer. It is also the polit9cal tension that is steady buildi9ng up.

The campaigning will hit its crescendo when the state goes out to vote on May 12. The counting will happen on May 15.

The entire country seems unusually invested in the election in Karnataka. A loss in Karnataka will put the Congress party’s future in the country on life support. Karnataka is the only large state the Congress party currently has a government in, bedside Punjab, Mizoram and the union territory of Pondicherry.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has decided to go scorched earth in the run up to the election. He has staked his fortune on caste arithmetic.

Siddharamaiah’s opponent, when it comes to campaigning and fighting elections, is the redoubtable Amit Shah. Shah has time and again demonstrated that he knows how to win elections for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Here’s a look into how various issue and recent development, such as the granting minority status to the Lingayats, position of the Janata Dal (Secular) as a possible ‘King maker’ and BJP coming full circle in projecting BS Yeddyurappa as their CM candidate.