With the Election Commission indicating all but the dates for early polls in Karnataka, the political parties in the state got down to the brass tacks of their respective campaigns for the impending elections. The Congress brought together on the same dais three leaders who will spearhead its campaign while the BJP brainstormed strategy for the polls with election in-charge Arun Jaitley.Congress leaders — state president Mallikarjun Kharge, former CM S M Krishna, and key leader Siddaramaiah — shared a platform and sent out a message of unity in an attempt to dispel reports of underlying differences between the triumvirate. Kharge, Krishna and Siddaramaiah — KPCC head, election co-ordination committee head and the campaign head respectively — announced they were working together and said reports of differences were nothing but distortions by the media. “We will fight the polls on the stability plank since people suffered during the coalition rule,” Krishna said.After a series of meetings, the BJP announced a strategy revolving around the “hijacking” of the 2004 poll mandate by parties with fewer seats than the BJP, price rise, Islamic and Maoist terrorism, Janata Dal Secular’s betrayal of the party and its 10-day CM B S Yeddyurappa.Jaitley hoped that the EC will fulfil the constitutional requirement to hold the polls before May 28 and said Yeddyurappa will be the party’s chief minister candidate. Having lost a spate of recent Assembly polls, the Congress fears that another loss will lead to the downfall of the UPA in parliamentary polls, Jaitley added. He ruled out the possibility of another hung Assembly in Karnataka. Delimitation will have little bearing on electoral performances of the party, he said. The BJP will fight the Congress and the JDS in the polls and will decide shortly on whether to go alone or as the NDA, Jaitley said.
