The BJP and Congress have focused on all the 66 assembly segments that go to polls on May 16 and engaged in a see-saw battle to gain an upper hand over each other.
In the 2004 polls, the BJP won 37 seats from this central Karnataka, Malnad, coastal belt and parts of North Karnataka, conceding 22 to Congress and 14 to the JDS.
With some of the constituencies undergoing change in the delimitation process, BJP is eyeing to scale up its strength while the Congress is making a determined bid to drub the saffron party.
Considering the importance of this phase, Congress President Sonia Gandhi addressed public meetings at Koppal and Mangalore today, while BJP's Sushma Swaraj went through a hectic schedule in Bellary, Moodigeri and Shikaripura where her party's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa is locked in battle royale with S Bangarappa of Samajwadi Party.
Bollywood couple Dharmendra and Hema Malini would be campaigning for the BJP in Bellary tomorrow.
The JDS has suffered an initial jolt in Bellary City where its candidate, M Diwakarbabu, who defected from Congress in a lightening speed, reunited with the parent party and walked out of poll fray.
President M Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Election Management Committee chief SM Krishna and Campaign Committee head Siddaramaiah have also been fanning out to several areas addressing meetings in these districts.
The Congress is concentrating more in the districts of Davanagere, Bellary, Shimoga and Dakshina Kannda in the backdrop of BJP maintaining its dominance.
In the last poll, the BJP won six of the eight seats in Shimoga district and came up with a similar performance in Dakshina Kannada.
In Bellary, the family of G Janardhana Reddy, BJP MLC has vowed to decimate Congress and JDS. Congress had won two, the BJP and the JDS three each in the last election.
JDS President HD Devegowda and his son and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy have hit the campaign trail in parts of Chitradurga, to ensure that the party retains three seats it won last time and also on Raichur, which gave it four seats.
Voters hailing from Lingayat community, Kurubas and SCs-STs are in a sizeable strength in majority of these constituencies.
Congress is pinning its hopes on Siddaramaiah, a prominent Kuruba community leader who can influence the voters of OBCs to turn around the fortunes of the party, and former deputy chief minister MP Prakash, a respected Lingayat leader.
All eyes will certainly be on the Shikaripura constituency, which is witnessing a titanic clash between Yeddyurappa and Bangarappa.
There are 589 aspirants trying their luck in the second phase at the hands of 11 million electorate.
