Karnataka is a trending state all over India ahead of the crucial assembly polls which is due on May 12. Every party is trading charges against the opponents especially on social media in order to win the election at any cost.

The entertainment factor in the elections has now gone a notch higher with a song mocking the BJP’s selection of B S Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial candidate going viral. The satirical yet hilarious song describes everything from Yeddyurappa’s tenure as CM, corruption allegations against him, imprisonment, quitting BJP and the fact that the BJP during its tenure in the state saw three chief ministers.

The Congress manifesto will have “something in the digital space” for voters in Karnataka, which is likely to be similar to the freebies that parties in Tamil Nadu routinely give out to voters, a Congress leader said. The party will release its manifesto on Friday, and Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be in Mangalore to unveil it on the last day of his two-day tour.

Before he unveils the manifesto, Gandhi will visit voters in Bantwal district and the Dharamsthala Manjunatheshwara temple in the morning.

Sources from the Congress said that the manifesto will also have something for everyone in the family. “It has been designed in such a way that every family in the state will get one or the other benefit,” a party leader said. “Apart from that, we have stuck to what can be delivered.”

The manifesto will also have a detailed three-tier list, reaching out to address state, district and block level issues. In addition to that, there will be 34 manifestos, one for each of the state’s 30 districts apart from the detailed three-tier list.

Gandhi had earlier stressed on a “people’s manifesto” and this two-day visit will be his seventh visit to the state.

Party leaders said that the Congress’s manifesto in the last elections has been fulfilled to a great extent. “Over 90 per cent of the manifesto has been fulfilled and that’s a record within the party itself,” said a senior party leader.

Apart from Bantwal, Dharamsthala and Mangalore, the Congress president will also travel to several parts of Uttara Kanada district, including Ankola, Kumta, Honawar and Bhatkal. He will spend the night at Murdeshwar.

Congress Tamil Nadu Karnataka Mangalore Rahul Gandhi manifesto Bantwal

They are the star campaigners of their parties but obviously both have widely different style and approach. While the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is no doubt an incisive and intelligent communicator, his political rival, the chief minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah is a shrewd and astute strategist.

If Modi is unmatched in reaching out to the people through his speeches and oratory, Siddaramaiah is confident that his stratagem would sway the voters away from the BJP.
There is a general perception in the urban middle class and especially among the BJP cadres and state level leaders that once Modi picks up the thread and starts talking to the people through his rallies, the situation would make a dramatic shift in favour of the party.

Some senior leaders feel that the bickering surrounding denial of ticket to son of party’s chief ministerial candidate B S Yedurappa would not have any impact what so ever at the ground level. In a damage control move party has made him the general secretary of its youth organisation, Yuva Morcha of the state unit.

Nevertheless, Siddaramaiah is also ready to face the BJP challenges. For some time he appeared to be losing its grip on the people of the state and the political spectrum getting split on the lines of south and north Karnataka. The people, particularly the intellectuals nursed the feeling that Siddaramaiah was ignoring the north to the benefit of the south.

In contrast to Yedurappa the corruption charges against Siddaramaiah failed to inflict damage and catch the imagination of the people. But the people accuse him of ignoring the development interest of Karnataka. He was sitting over the development fund. Twenty year old image of chaos and mismanagement has been revived in the minds of the local people.

Only three days before, he turned this bitter criticism to his advantage. Before the elections were formally announced, Siddaramaiah was to contest from two seats. But under public scrutiny and attack from the party leaders he chose to contest from one seat. But in a sudden shift of strategy he decided to contest from Badami a north Karnataka constituency.

But this time he cited to do away with the regional imbalance he is contesting from north Karnataka. He said, “my candidature is an extension of the concern of my party for resolving the regional imbalance.”

While talking to his legislators from Karnataka Narendra Modi emphasised on the need for their close interaction and relation with their electorate at the booth level, the Congress chief minister tried to project himself as the icon of development.

People hold that during his tenure no significant development work has been undertaken. Though funds are not a problem, he is not keen to bring the development on ground. A decade back the intellectuals and business men had charged the then government of ignoring the interest of the people and the state. The situation is no better today. Long traffic snarls and jams have made the life hell. No serious effort is made to ease the crisis.

However the people feel notwithstanding their annoyance with Siddaramaiah, he cannot be written off. One thing is quite significant that BJP has not succeeded in making a strong of corruption against him. Intriguingly the corruption charges still haunt Yedurappa. This was the reason that the was little bit reluctant to field his son.

Siddaramaiah has beaten back the anti-incumbency. His SC-backward-minority alliance remains intact. What is really bad for BJP is party’s CM candidate B S Yeddyurappa has not succeeded in placing himself as his rival. People of Karnataka view the current election as a battle between Modi and Siddaramaiah

Hindusthan Samachar/Arun/Shri Ram Shaw

BJP General Secretary Muralidhar Rao has said
Congress party’s only achievement in the last five years, is giving a “contractors
friendly government”.
Participating in a Facebook live programme arranged by BJP Media Center here
today he replied to questions by facebookers worldwide. The people of Karnataka
gave Congress a clear mandate but it failed to provide good governance. Neither it
was able to bring in developments.
However, he said, the Congress regime took up projects as per the wishes of
contractors’ lobby. There had been lot of corruptions in schemes such as Indira
Canteen. Many of the “Bhagya” schemes were not reaching the people. The
Congress regime should learn from the Centre on how to implement the propeople
schemes.

When voted to power, he said, the agriculture sector will be one of the
important issues in the BJP’s agenda of governance. The BJP government would
initiate all measures to prevent farmers suicide, and increase the agriculture
income. BJP chief ministerial candidate, Sri. B. S. Yeddyurappa had already
announced that the new government would allocate Rs. 1 lakh crore fund for
irrigation projects.
To a query he said in pursuit of its vote-bank politics the Congress forged an
alliance with anti-national forces. It’s open hobnobbing with organisations like PFI
and SDPI, had proved that the Congress party could stoop to any level to gain some
votes. It was ready to compromise on national security issue too.

BJP files charge-sheet against Congress Government
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday lambasted Congress Government for
collapsed public health system in Karnataka.
Releasing a charge-sheet titled “Arogya Ilakheyo? Saavina Kunikeyo? (Is it Health Department or
Death Knot?) against the State Government over deteriorated medical facilities in Karnataka, BJP General
Secretary and in-charge of State unit, Sri. Muralidhar Rao said the State of Karnataka, under Congress rule,
had touched all-time low in all health indicators.
He said infant mortality rate remained high in Karnataka even though it was coming down in other
parts of India. The malnutrition menace had also been rampant. The Government had been running only 40
blood-banks for entire state of 6.5 crore people.
He said as many as 21370 posts (accounts for one third of the total posts) had been vacant in
Health Department. It was better not to speak about the conditions of government hospitals. In most of the
rural hospitals there were no doctors and paramedical staff.
Sri. Rao said the BJP had earlier released report cards of Congress regime about different fields
such as Law and Order, Crimes, Slums, SC/ST and Backwards Class hostels etc. Now, the party, was
releasing charge-sheet on health sector scenario. The party would expect Congress to initiate healthy
debate on these issues but they had been indulged in diversionary tactics.
The BJP leader took serious objection to Sri Siddaramaiah’s attempt to paint Prime Minister, Sri.
Narendra Modi a person from North India. It was ridiculous statement from a Chief Minister of Congress,
which claimed to be a national party. If at all this was the case, then, Sri Siddaramaiah had to spell out the
geographical limitations of Congress President, Sri. Rahul Gandhi. It was pity that even after running
government for full five-year term, Sri. Siddaramaiah didn’t have any achievements to showcase.
The BJP State General Secretary, Sri. Ravikumar, who was present in the press conference, said as
many as 40,000 infants, most of whom belong to “AHINDA” communities, had been died of malnutrition.
Sri Siddaramaiah, who used to claim as the champion of “AHINDA” should take the “credit” of these deaths.
He charged the Congress Government was keen in implementing big health projects because they
would get commissions. However, they were not showing any interest in filling up vacancies in Health
Department, as they would not get commissions.
State Convenor of BJP Health Cell, Dr. Basavaraj and Co-convenor Dr. Anilkumar, who played major
role in preparing Health Report Card, were present.