Bengaluru: Curtains came down last evening on the public campaigning for the May 12 election to 223 seats of Karnataka Assembly after hectic canvassing. However, candidates can campaign by visiting door-to-door. Only 10 persons including the candidate can campaign. It is 223 Constituencies as polling for Jayanagar seat in Bengaluru was countermanded following the death of sitting MLA and BJP candidate B.N. Vijaya Kumar. The State witnessed a high-voltage campaign as national leaders of both Congress and BJP took up whirlwind tours of every nook and corner to woo voters in favour of their party. The entire Union Council of Ministers of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government took up the campaign. PM Narendra Modi, who launched mission ‘Congress Mukta Bharat,’ during his last leg of campaigning, verbally attacked AICC president Rahul Gandhi, personally as well, and Chief Minister Siddharamaiah terming him as ‘Sidda Rupaiah’ alleging that he was taking 10 per cent commission for every work. Former External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who joined BJP last year, was seen campaigning for the party candidates at the fag end. Modi, in one of the public meetings, chided Rahul Gandhi for stating that he will become the next Prime Minister if Congress wins majority in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The AICC President responded, “I will never attack Modi as he is the Prime Minister of the country.” Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley and a very few BJP Central leaders, were missing from the campaigning. Jaitley’s absence was due to the health factor.
Gruelling campaign trail
