Legislative assembly elections can never be a true yardstick to judge the popularity of a national leader. However, if the exit poll results of the May 10 Karnataka elections are anything to go by, it may appear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can still influence the outcomes. Although Doubting Thomasas keep questioning the exit poll results, it seems that Karnataka could have elected another hung assembly with the BJP and the Congress party locked in a neck-to-neck fight. Until a few days left for the voting, it appeared that the Congress party was headed to get the popular mandate, thanks to the allegations of corruption and lacklustre performance of the BJP governments in the state over the past four years the party was in power. The importance of the Karnataka polls was best exemplified by the fact that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed an election rally after many years. The Karnataka outcome is crucial for the revival of her party in view of the fast-approaching general elections, due in April-May next year. Modi’s intense campaigning, however, seems to have brought the BJP back into contention in which the usual suspect Janata Dal (Secular) may become the key factor in the formation of the new government. Usually, a regional party that finishes third is termed the kingmaker if its support becomes essential in the formation of the government. However, in the case of the JD (S), as recent history shows, it is never happy playing second fiddle to either the BJP or the Congress party. HD Kumaraswamy, son of the former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, always believes in being the Chief Minister. Following the election of a hung assembly in 2004, the Congress party and JD (S) came together to form the government under the leadership of Dharam Singh. The Dharam Singh government collapsed within two years as Kumaraswamy entered into a power-sharing pact with the BJP under which he became the chief minister initially. However, he refused to fulfil his commitment when it came to handover the power to the BJP leader BS Yediyurappa, resulting in the imposition of the President’s Rule and subsequent dissolution of the assembly. The Congress party had learnt its lesson when Karnataka delivered yet another fractured mandate in 2018. In its bid to keep the BJP out of power, which had fallen short of the halfway mark by mere nine seats, the Congress party offered to support Kumaraswamy to form the government, although the JD (S) had won only 37 seats in the 224-member assembly. The JD (S)-Congress coalition government collapsed as the two parties failed to prevent mass desertion by their legislators and the return of the BJP to power through the backdoor. It seems that Karnataka could be headed for a similar exercise. Congress would seek to form a post-poll alliance with the JD (S) to keep the BJP out of power, in which Kumaraswamy is unlikely to settle for anything lesser than the chief ministership. Interestingly, the same Karnataka voters who had fallen shy of giving the BJP a clear mandate by a narrow margin in 2018, voted wholeheartedly for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, enabling it to win 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats of Karnataka. Notwithstanding the outcome when the results are declared on May 13, BJP can expect that backed with Modi’s popularity, it will fare well in the next parliamentary elections in the state. The Karnataka elections, however, will be remembered for long for all wrong reasons. The Election Commission may have received the maximum complaints ever during the course of this election. Sonia Gandhi was accused of uttering “sovereignty” of Karnataka, which the BJP interpreted as the Congress secession plan and demanded an FIR against Sonia Gandhi and derecognising the Congress party. On the other hand, Modi has been accused of releasing a video, appealing to the Karnataka voters to vote for the BJP, after the campaigning officially ended. If anything, this merely suggests that elections in India have moved far away from the win-some-lose-some contest among opponents. It has become a rivalry in which only victory matters. The signals are alarming given the opposition trying to form a grand anti-BJP alliance for the 2024 elections. Karnataka polls could just be the trailer of how dirty the elections have become and what could be lying in store ahead. It is probably time that the Election Commission takes the initiative and gets all national and recognised regional parties to sit across the table to redefine the dos and don’ts for the future as the existing model code of conduct is violated merrily by all and sundry.