Karnataka gears up for Congress vs BJP battle

KRISHNA RETURNS: S M Krishna says it has not been decided whether he will be contesting the elections.

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Bangalore: Slogans, banners and streetside meetings greeted S M Krishna as he returned to Karnataka politics after a three-year sojourn as Maharashtra governor.

As the former chief minister dons khadi again, the expectations in the Congress are high. But many questions are still unanswered.

S M Krishna says it has not been decided whether he will be contesting the elections. He also says that the Congress has not announced a chief ministerial candidate and is not going to break the trend this time either.

S M Krishna has always projected an image with an urban tilt, an IT-savvy image, but the Congress has realised that the village is where the voter is and so Krishna has announced plans that he would travel across districts and rural areas to campaign for the party.

Needless to say, the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver will be his trump card this election.

And it's the farmer's vote that the Congress's main rival, the BJP is targeting too.

At a farmer rally in Hubli, the party's star campaigner Narendra Modi promised 24 hours power supply to farmers, who have had less than four hours power for several years now. He also raised terror as a poll issue in a region known for RSS presence.

"Do you want to root out terrorism? Do you want to stop the terrorists? Delhi can't do it, it has no courage. If you want to root out terrorism, only Yeddyurappa can do it," is what Narendra Modi is telling the voters.

Elections are yet to be announced in Karnataka, but electioneering has begun in the true sense in the state, with both Congress and the BJP fancing their chances of a win.

(With inputs from Mahendra Chavan in Hubli)