Bigwigs tensed as voters queue up before booths

In Dakshina Kananda constituency former union minister and veteran Congress leader B Janardhan Poojary, who won four elections in the past, is contesting for ninth and last time. His main opponent and BJP's sitting MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has suffered a drawback after call-gate. In Udupi-Chikmgalur too there is a straight battle between Congress candidate K Jayaprakash Hegde and BJP candidate Shobha Karandlaje.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, the JD (S) patriarch, who is seeking his sixth term in the Lok Sabha, may not have a cakewalk in his home terrain Hassan. His son and former CM H D Kumaraswamy shifted to Chikballapur from Bangalore Rural constituency, hoping to enter Lok Sabha again.

The JD (S) could not even field strong candidates in its presumed stronghold – Old Mysore region. Political pundits see this as a ploy to help the BJP in certain select constituencies. There is nothing new in this as the JD (S), in the past, had hobnobbed with national parties for political gains.

BJP national secretary Ananth Kumar, seeking his sixth straight term from the Bangalore South, is banking on the popularity of party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. But the hard reality is that anti-incumbency factor has hit the sitting BJP MPs. Be it Kumar or State BJP president Pralhad Joshi, they are sweating out to retain their seats.

Of the three union ministers renominated by the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge and K H Muniyappa are contesting from the reserved constituencies of Gulbarga and Kolar respectively, while Veerappa Moily is trying reelecction from the backward constituency of Chikballapur Besides Kumaraswamy, Moily has to fight it out with former minister B N Bachegowda.

Muniyappa is finding it difficult to make it seven-time-in-a row in Kolar. He seems to have struck a secret understanding to ensure that weak opponents are fielded against him to beat anti-incumbency.

Six former CMs – Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), Moily and Dharam Singh of the Congress and Yeddyurappa and D V Sadananda Gowda of the BJP – are also trying their poll fortunes today. And, naturally all of them have emerged as key contestants.

One constituency which has spotlight on is Bangalore South, where Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar scheme template creator Nandan Nilekani is contesting. The high-voltage campaign by Nilekani, be it on the field or in the cyber world, has forced the five-time MP Ananth Kumar to rework his strategies.

Film-actor-turned Mandya MP Ramya, who made her entry into the Lok Sabha in the by-polls, has rattled the JD (S) in Mandya, a Vokkaliga belt.

While the Congress has experimented in the Bangalore South, the BJP has fielded a political greenhorn from Mysore. Pratap Simha, a staunch supporter of the RSS and a Kannada journalist, is the candidate from Mysore. He is taking on Congress MP A H Vishwanath, a close associate of the chief minister. Siddaramaiah, in his home district of Mysore, is doing his best to curb the growth of the pro-Hindutvawadi.

In Shimoga, the JD (S) is seriously fighting the battle because it has fielded late chief minister S Bangarappa's daughter and wife of film actor Shivrajkumar, Geetha.