By M.K. Ashoka

Bengaluru, May 6 (IANS): In all probability, the 2023 Assembly elections will go down in the annals of Karnataka history as the most intensely fought state polls.

The close contest, do or die efforts by political parties, especially BJP and Congress, have made the country to watch the developments very closely.

All the national leaders have reached towns, municipality centers and villages. The ruling BJP, determined to come back to power with a new experiment of introducing 72 new faces, has changed the scenario entirely in Karnataka.

The Congress, on the other hand, adopted a confrontational approach with BJP over multiple issues. Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi have directly challenged Prime Minister Modi over corruption, reservation cap, humiliation of Lingayat leaders.

Amit Shah has reached most of the constituencies in the nook and cranny of the state. Prime Minister Modi's outreach in this election is unprecedented. His appeals to voters of Karnataka were also not made by any PM till date.

Former BJP MLC Ashwath Narayan speaking to IANS called the phenomenon first of its kind. "I have been in election campaigns since 1983. It was the first election for BJP under the symbol of lotus in Karnataka. A.K. Subbaiah was the President.

The party had won 18 seats. Dr V.S. Acharya was the party leader and deputy leader was Dhananjay Kumar. Ramkrishna Hegde formed the government with the support of BJP's 18 MLAs. Since then, I have closely observed elections and politics," he stated.

"The BJP party was formed on April 6, 1980, since then we are in active politics. Between 1983 to 2023, in 40 years, a lot of things have changed. The scale of election campaigning has been unexpected this time," he explains.

The leadership is not identified only during elections. One thing is organisational leadership and how it is being used at the time of elections will be known at this juncture. "Our government was a midterm government. It did not have a clear mandate, it was a fractured mandate one. In this government, former CM B.S. Yediyurappa is on the verge of retirement. In the absence of the late Ananth Kumar, the election is being fought under aggressive central leadership," he stated.

"This is the first election without Ananth Kumar and Yediyurappa is not contesting. The party has ruled for 3.6 years and seen two CMs. The national leadership is completely behind us. We will get success in spite of any crisis," he said.

When asked about Congress party's outreach, he stated that the party does not have the system of organisation. This is not possible at the time of elections. The elections will be fought on leadership such as Atal Ji and Advani Ji, now Modi and Amit Shah are there. Similarly, Yediyurappa, Ananth Kumar and Eshwarappa were there. But, in Congress there is no leader other than Siddaramaiah. D.K. Shivakumar is an unknown person in Malavalli constituency located next to his Kanakapura seat, he explained.

"I am not making this statement to condemn them. Rahul Gandhi is not accepted by people," Ashwath Narayan explained.

Jagadish V. Sadam, senior AAP leader stated that it is his party which has reached every village through Gram Sampark Abhiyan in Karnataka. Congress and BJP party workers or leaders have never reached villages. They want to purchase the votes through money.

The exercise was taken up before the elections and after candidates were finalised, it had happened for the second time, he added.