New Delhi: While the BJP was trying to turn this into a Modi versus Rahul fight, the Congress wanted to keep the narrative to the respective regional leaderships of the two parties. After all, the scam-tainted 75-year-old BS Yeddyurappa of the BJP was finding it hard to compete in the Karnataka election with the aggressive Siddaramaiah of the Congress who was positioning himself as a pan-Karnataka leader.
For the Grand Old Party, the Karnataka Chief Minister was its best bet to retain the state. But come election day, the Congress party’s face in Karnataka failed to pull his own weight.
During his whirlwind tour of Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw an open challenge to Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Speak for 15 minutes on the achievements of the Congress government in Karnataka, Modi dared Gandhi. The Congress hit back at the PM within minutes, but the reply did not come from Rahul Gandhi. It was Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who slammed Modi in a series of tweets, challenging the PM to join a debate with him ahead of Karnataka election.
The next day, he even asked Modi to talk about the achievements of the previous Yeddyurappa government for 15 minutes without looking at a piece of paper, which was hailed by the Congress as a masterstroke.
The BJP was trying hard to make this election campaign a Modi versus Rahul Gandhi fight. The PM was attacking the Congress president and his predecessors in his election speeches, not saying much about Siddaramaiah or the state Congress. According to political analysts, the BJP has realised that their local cadre led by B S Yeddyurappa has failed to enthuse the voters and mount a powerful campaign against the Siddaramaiah government.
Before the election, the Congress announced that the Chief Minister was going to contest from both Chamundeshwari and Badami seats. Soon after the announcement, Siddaramaiah tweeted a reply to BJP’s P Muralidhar Rao and said that “leaders with pan Karnataka appeal do not fear any part of the state". “People will decide my fate in both the constituencies, you don’t worry about it,” he wrote after Rao said that Siddaramaiah was afraid of losing in Chamundeshwari which is why he is contesting from two seats.
But as the results poured in, the CM was trailing from the Chamundeshwari seat, which was the only seat he was initially supposed to contest. In Badami, his lead appeared to be very thin and even wavered at one point in the morning. From the way the trends came in, it seems Congress’s trump card failed to fire on Tuesday.
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