Is Bommai ready to go for Assembly polls in Dec?

Shyam Sundar Vattam| NT
Bengaluru, July 12

Will Karnataka go to Assembly polls in December this year? Reports to this effect are doing the rounds in the corridors of power with brisk activities being witnessed in the ruling BJP camp. The State is due for polls in April-May 2023 but seeing the hurry Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is displaying in implementing promises made in the Budget for 2022-23, many feel the state may go for early polls after five months.

There were reports earlier that Karnataka would go to polls along with Gujarat by the year-end but these reports were dismissed by the CM himself who said the state would go to polls only when they are due and it would not be advanced at any cost.

Now seeing the hectic politicking in the BJP camp, many feel otherwise. When contacted by News Trail, former CM and senior BJP leader, Jagadish Shettar said the issue of midterm polls had not been discussed in the party forum at all. There was no indication from the high command to hold the Assembly polls along with Gujarat nor had the Karnataka BJP made any proposal to hold the election by December. If this was the case, the state government would have been in poll mode by now.

“As far as my knowledge is concerned there is no possibility of early polls”. However, the rumour mill has been working overtime since the last one or two months that the BJP may advance the elections to escape anti-incumbency.

It remains to be seen how the government will overcome anti-incumbency after inheriting a host of problems and getting caught in one controversy or the other. Political pundits feel early elections have advantages and disadvantages.

If Karnataka goes to polls with Gujarat, key-campaigners like PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah could concentrate on both states to woo voters. The party in power will also have to provide good governance before the polls by launching welfare programmes. The disadvantage of early polls is that it would give an impression that the ruling party is not confident of winning the elections when they are actually due.