Though the newly delimited Jayanagar Assembly constituency has four major contestants in fray, the main fight has narrowed down to the BJP and the Congress. While BJP's  B N Vijayakumar has an advantage of being familiar with the constituency, Congress candidate M Suresh may pose a serious challenge based on his party’s past grip over the area.

Earlier, the constituency was won for Congress by veteran Ramalinga Reddy in 1999 and 2004 against BJP's Vijayakumar.

However, in 2004, the margin was close - out of 1,39,670 votes polled, Reddy secured 54,078 votes, Vijayakumar 51,423 and Zameer Ahmed khan of JD(S) 32,086 votes. This time, Congress is minus the charisma of Reddy, while JD(S) has a new face.

The constituency has educated and illiterate, amply rich as well as lower and middle -class population in its four wards - Jayanagar, J P Nagar, Pattabhiramanagar and Gurappanapalya. The BJP candidate, who has contested unsuccessfully twice from the same constituency, can count on the constituency’s new format - The new BBMP ward of JP Nagar has a BJP corporator for the past two terms, (Jayanagar ward also has BJP corporator,) while a few areas like Hombegowdanagar, Mavalli, Madivala, Lakkasandra, which were a bit troublesome for BJP, have been excluded.

Though the Congress has a reliable vote bank in some areas, sporting a new candidate - Seva Dal coordinator M Suresh, may turn a disadvantage.

Added to this, Congress rebel K S Samiulla, former corporator of Gurappanapalya, is contesting independently, and will affect the vote equations. Samiulla, a rich local leader, has considerable influence in Gurappanapalya and Pattabhiramanagara wards having more Muslim population.

JD(S) candidate Narayana Raju, a Bommanahalli CMC member for two terms, is new to the constituency.