New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday morning announced that the Karnataka assembly elections will be held on May 12, and the results will be announced on May 15. Controversially, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT cell in-charge tweeted the poll dates before the EC had officially announced them, though he got the counting date wrong.The elections will be crucial leading up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, both for the BJP and the Congress. In its bid to expand its political footprint across India, the BJP is attempting to gain power in the southern states of the country. The party is hedging its bets on Karnataka as it is the only state in south India where it has formed a government in the past and where it has a substantial presence on the ground with a strong local leader in the form of B.S. Yeddyurappa.For the Congress, which won 122 seats in the 234 seat assembly in 2013, the state is perhaps even more crucial as Karnataka is the largest of the four remaining Congress-ruled states and one of the few states where the party can boast of a strong regional mass leader – the current chief minister Siddaramaiah. Leading up to 2019, the outcome of the Karnataka polls could dictate whether the Congress can be considered the fulcrum around which the opposition to the BJP can galvanise.Apart from the two national parties, there is also a third alternative – the H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS). The state party, in fact, was tied for second place – with the BJP – in the previous state assembly elections with 40 MLAs.In terms of vote share in the 2013 assembly elections, the JD(S) performed slightly better than the BJP with 20.2% of the votes. The saffron party received 19.9% of the votes, while the Congress took 36.6% of the popular vote.In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP polled 43% of the votes, trumping the Congress’s 40.8% to win 17 of the 25 seats in the state.Given the significance of the Karnataka assembly polls, the campaign is already in full swing. BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi have both held several public meetings in the state. The BJP campaign has focussed heavily on the issue of agrarian distress, apart from devoting attention to allegations of corruption under the Siddaramaiah regime. The party has also built a broad campaign around Hindutva themes.The Congress, on its part, has attempted to focus on its welfare schemes in the state, aimed particularly towards rural Karnataka, which suffered as a result of consecutive droughts during the five years the party has been in power. The party has also attempted to focus on what is euphemistically called ‘soft Hindutva’ with Rahul Gandhi visiting temples with members of the press in tow.Congress president Rahul Gandhi with Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah visits Thenka Yermal village in Udupi. Credit: PTIRural distress, as in most states across the country, is likely to be a major issue leading up to the polls. The BJP has made a string of strong pitches to Karnataka’s farmers, promising reforms for the benefit of the agricultural sector if it is voted into power. The saffron party is in the middle of a 15-day-long Musthi Dhanya Abhiyana where party workers are going across the state to collect grains from farmers.“In return, we will give a letter to farmers by B.S. Yeddyurappa asking them not to commit suicide and assuring them that once the BJP government comes to power, we will ensure that no farmer dies in the state,” media reports quoted Prakash Javadekar, BJP’s Karnataka in-charge, as saying.On March 19, the Siddaramaiah government in the state announced its decision to declare the Lingayat community as a religious minority distinct from the Hindu religion. This decision, coming with a view on polls, could have huge ramifications as the Lingayats are a politically-influential community and form about 15% of the state’s population.Traditionally, the Lingayats have formed a significant part of BJP’s support base in the state and party’s chief ministerial candidate in the state, Yeddyurappa, comes from the Lingayat community. The Congress government’s move to declare Lingayats a religious minority is being seen as a move to erode the BJP’s support base and has rattled the BJP.