All the political parties are leaving no stone unturned to woo voters. The caste issue has always taken center stage in Karnataka. Parties are raising caste politics. Besides that, Congress and JD(S) are focusing on strengthening Muslim minority votes as BJP has announced a big decision to scrap 4% reservation to Muslims. It is to be noted that Muslim constitute about 13% of the Karnataka electorate. Congress and JD(S) as their strategic move are fielding Muslim candidates wherever possible and giving tickets to Muslim contenders. In fact, the AAP party has fielded the highest number of 25 Muslim candidates. The JD(S) party has appointed former union minister CM Ibrahim as its State President to spread a message that the party can do better justice with Muslims as compared to other parties.
On the other hand, BJP hasn’t fielded any minority candidates. Speaking in this regard, Home Minister Amit Shah said, “We believe in winnability and based on that give tickets rather go by majority or minority.”Congress is also focusing on the 40% commission charge against the BJP’s Karnataka Government and the party’s misbehavior with senior Lingayat functionaries who have left the BJP recently and joined Congress.Parties are not serious about real issues like unemployment, LPG Cylinders, and motor fuel price hikes, inflation among others. Every party used this caste politics to their advantage. Until this caste equation gets out of mind, these elections would be no different.