BJP's last-mile push to maximise returns from central Karnataka

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is giving itself the last-mile push to maximise returns from Central Karnataka that is critical to its victory for various reasons. The five districts of Shivamoga, Davangere, Chitradurga, Tumakuru and Bellary account for 41 of the 224 assembly seats, have a large population of the Lingayats, an intermediate caste that has voted the BJP since the late 1980s after Veerendra Patil,  the last major Lingayat leader the Congress had, was publicly rebuffed by Rajiv Gandhi and an equally huge presence of the Dalits, comprising 101 sub-castes, and the scheduled tribes for whose votes the Congress