BJP had challenged Congress in the 2004 elections in Chintamani, Srinivaspur, Mulbagal, Betamangal, Kolar and Malur Assembly constituencies. 

However, this time the poll scenario has changed. BJP has to struggle this time to bag seats in Malur and Bangarpet constituencies while in other constituencies its chances of winning the elections seems to be less.

Except Bangarpet and Malur, BJP has not yet selected suitable candidates.

With a week left for the elections, there is no favourable atmosphere yet for BJP. Not even the sympathy card or JD(S) ‘betrayal’ card would be of much use here.

Vokkaliga community in Malur is unhappy with he district president and former legislator S N Krishnayya Shetty.

Besides, Prabhakar of JD(S) has a strong favour in the region with an added advantage of former legislator A Nagaraj of Congress joining the party in rebel against the Congress for denying him the ticket.

Even in Bangarpet, the BJP candidate will face tough fight against former legislator from Congress M Narayanaswamy.

In Mulbagal, chances of triangular contest are more with BJP, JD(S) and Congress sharing equal strength.

Besides, BJP leaders here have stood united this time giving the party an edge.

In Gouribidanur, though Ravi Narayanareddy is a tough candidate, due to opposition from some sections of the society the contest will be between Jyoti Reddy of JD(S) and Shivashankar Reddy of Congress. Besides, independent candidate Ashok Kumar will also pose challenge to these candidates.

In Bagepalli, BJP candidate Saikumar’s cinema background seems to have had little impact on the election scenario. Saikumar, who belongs to Balijiga community will face tough competition from Cong candidate N Sampangi of the same community. Hence the votes will get distributed between the two. Hence real contest will be between CPM candidate G V Sriramareddy and JD(S) candidate D J Nagarajareddy. In Chikkaballapur, Shiddlaghatta, Chintamani, Srinivaspur and Kolar BJP candidates will have to make it hard to win the elections.