Hubli, Apr 26: A win on his home turf here has become a matter of both survival and prestige for Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar as he is going the whole hog for a fifth victory from Hubli-Dharwad constituency.
The ruling BJP is seeking to make Hubli-Dharwad the new epicentre of its campaign for the May 5 Assembly polls in the absence of former party strongman B S Yeddyurappa's pan-Karnataka influence, to keep its strong base in north Karnataka intact.
The prestige invested in this contest by soft spoken and sober Shettar is mirrored in his wife Shilpa Shettar hitting the streets in scorching heat for a door-to-door campaign.
Shettar is perceived to have a clear cut edge over his rivals.
Political pundits have predicted a victory for Shettar with a depleted margin, as local leader of Yeddyurappa's Karnataka Janata Party and former minister Jabbar Khan Honnalli and Somvanshya Sahasrarjun Kshatriya Samaj and former BJP leader Ashok Katwe are working to ensure their community votes for the Congress under a reported tacit understanding.
This could be a little worrisome for Shettar who had won the seat by 26,000 votes in the 2008 polls that saw the installation of the first-ever BJP Government in the South.
Speaking to PTI, Karnataka University Political Science Professor Dr Harish said Shettar would win, not for his performance as a Chief Minister to develop his constituency, but because of the voters loyalty to a particular political ideology.
"The voters, especially SSK Samaj in Hubli-Dharwad central assembly constituency have been loyal to a political ideology (Jan Sangh). Shettar's father was a Jan Sanghi with a clean image which the CM has also been successful to maintain," he says.
