Sixty nine assembly constituencies spread across eight districts will go to polls on Thursday in the third and final phase of voting in Karnataka Assembly elections.Thursday’s process brings the curtains down on voting in all 224 assembly segments across the state. The first phase of polling was held in 89 constituencies on May 10 and in 66 segments in the second phase on May 16.In the third phase, an estimated 1.17 crore electorate is expected to decide the poll prospects of 699 candidates.The focus will be on Gulbarga district, where two heavyweights of the Congress, former Chief Minister N Dharam Singh and KPCC President M Mallikarjun Kharge are seeking their ninth successive victories.Singh, who led the first coalition government in Karnataka in 2004 for about 20 months, faces an uphill task in quelling the challenge from BJP and JDS nominees in his home turf Jewargi, which elected him for eight uninterrupted terms.Kharge, another strongman of Congress, is also fighting a fierce battle against BJP and JDS in his new constituency Chitapur (Reserved).The prominent Dalit leader chose to shift from his bastion Gurumitkal, after it became a General Constituency in the delimitation process, to neighbouring Chitapur, which turned a reserved seat and is bidding for his maiden victory from the new turf.The eight districts have 12,389 polling stations, of which 4,358 have been classified as hyper-sensitive and 4,038 as sensitive.Police have deployed 58,000 security personnel to ensure peaceful polling.Issues like stability, price rise and betrayal by the JDS figured prominently during electioneering by BJP and Congress, while JDS asked voters to go for regional parties, saying they alone could boost development.BJP front-ranking leaders like party president Rajnath Singh, L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others campaigned in a majority of the constituencies.Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, Kharge and others have also strained their nerves to drump support for the party, which is bidding for return to power in this all important southern state.Former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was the lone star campaigner for the JDS, who toured most areas in eight districts, rejecting the BJP charge of betrayal and attacking the Congress for non-development.Other prominent leaders facing the poll are former Congress minister R V Deshpande (Haliyal), BJP leaders Jagadish Shettar (Hubli-Dharwad Central) and state unit JDS president Merajuddin Patel (Humnabad).
