In less than a month, Karnataka will vote to elect a new assembly. As is the case with all large-scale electoral exercises in India, a wide range of factors will shape the nature of popular verdict. Political parties and contestants will be alert to how perceptions around different issues – governance, development, identity politics – will impact their chances.
At the same time, the key rivals in the fray – the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) – will be careful in seeing how the major constituents of their support base can again bring them consolidated votes. As in other parts of the country, the cultivation of electorally significant social groups has been a subtext to the tale of electoral battles in Karnataka over the last seven decades.
