In a display of strength, BJP president Amit Shah today took out a massive road show in Badami...

In a display of strength, BJP president Amit Shah today took out a massive roadshow in Badami from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is in the fray in the Karnataka assembly polls. Painting the town saffron, festoons and BJP flags fluttered all along Badami in north Karnataka as Shah gave a final push for the party, which seeks to return to power in the only southern state it had ruled. Thousands of party workers sporting ochre color caps danced to the drumbeats, whistled, screamed and raised slogans vowing to bring the BJP to power and defeat Siddaramaiah, who is also contesting from Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru. Taking the onlookers by awe and surprise, party workers thronged the road disrupting the entire Badami town for more than two hours. Beating the summer heat, the party workers marched all along the route enthusiastically. Quintals of saffron color marigold flowers were splashed on a bus converted to look like a saffron chariot that carried Shah, BJP's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa and its Badami candidate B Sriramulu.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

Just two days before the D-day and also hours before the blaring loudspeakers fall silent, Shah made the final effort to woo the voters of Badami. The seat is as much crucial for the BJP as for the Congress, for, it will decide the fate of Siddaramaiah too. It is speculated that the caste matrix in Chamundeshwari forced him to find a 'safer' seat in north Karnataka. Siddaramaiah pitching himself against G T Devegowda in Chamundeshwari assembly segment is reported to have not gone down well with the Vokkaliga community, who dominate the region. In order to give Siddaramaiah a tough fight in Badami, the BJP fielded Sriramulu, a Scheduled Tribes leader from the town. Shah has been saying that Siddarmaiah's defeat is imminent in both Chamundeshwari as well as Badami.