Stakes are high for the BJP and higher still for the Congress as people vote to elect a new government in Karnataka on Wednesday following an intense and often bitter campaign that saw the ‘entry’ of Lord Hanuman in the last leg of the electoral battle fought as much on issues of governance as on ideology.

If the Congress appeared to take the fight to the rival by raising the pitch over alleged corruption under the BJP government headed first by B S Yediyurappa and then by Basavaraj Bommai with its high decibel “40 per cent sarkara” plank, the incumbent rode the “double engine” narrative to seek another term to push Karnataka higher up the development chart.