Curtains are drawn on the campaign

Bengaluru: A month long campaign by politicians to secure seats in the Karnataka Assembly Election came to an end on Thursday evening, with concluding press conferences by party leaders. The last day of campaigning witnessed some last-minute promises and desperate statements being made by candidates. BJP National President Amit Shah and Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressed press meets on the last day, clarifying details of the course of their campaign.

Although all politicians took pot-shots at the opposing leaders’ campaigns, statements and personal lives, they vehemently denied it, when asked about it. Rahul Gandhi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing up details of Gandhi’s family history in his campaigns. Responding to Modi’s statement that Sonia Gandhi was a foreigner who did not know much about the Indian diaspora, Rahul Gandhi said that his mother was “more Indian than many Indian people” he had seen.

Amit Shah denied all of the personal attacks made by him or his party leaders, in the course of their campaign. He also added that if the BJP comes to power in the State, it would conduct inquiries into all the alleged scandals and scams of the Siddaramaiah government. The leaders who had come to Karnataka from other States for campaigning, departed from the State by 6 pm, according to the election rules.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah chose to be in his ‘political fortress’ that is Chamundeshwari, on the last day, where he led a procession to seek votes for his party. Chief Ministerial candidate from BJP B.S. Yeddyurappa was in Badami, campaigning for the party nominee B. Sriramulu in the constituency. JD(S) State President H.D. Kumaraswamy was rather emotional in his last campaign, where he urged people to vote for his party, so as to save his State and his life.

The big day on Saturday will have the people of Karnataka exercise their franchise to elect 223 legislators into the government. The election in the Jayanagar segment in Bengaluru has been postponed due to the death of the BJP nominee MLA Vijay Kumar.

Meanwhile, the State is still awaiting a decision by the Election Commission on the seizure of 10,000 voter IDs in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency in Bengaluru. Parties have demanded that the election in the constituency be revoked, but the Commission is yet to decide.

On the penultimate day on Friday, candidates can be expected to carry out door-to-door campaigning without any processions.