
AMBREEN KHAN: What’s your take on the forthcoming Karnataka elections?
I think Karnataka elections are very interesting and let me give you a disclosure: we have a commercial interest in a media channel. So what I give you is there official house line. It is for the first time in Karnataka that BJP has been trying to position a campaign or a manifesto around a man, who happens to be a Lingayat. And they are doing that assuming that they can cut through all the normal caste equations. I’m not convinced that that will happen.
It’s an interesting exercise and it will be very useful to see what happens . . . I’m actually calling a hung Assembly.
VANDITA MISHRA: How do you think caste equations will play out?
Traditionally, what has happened in Karnataka is that you either say that he is my CM and then you have images and pictures on all other campaigns of every community. You’ll have a Lingayat, a Dalit, a Muslim, which is what Congress is doing interestingly in Karnataka. The BJP has chosen to go only with Lingayat a face. So I don’t know the answer to that. It will be interesting to see what happens. Mr Yediyurappa is very confident of winning the elections.
RISHI RAJ: Though the telecom sector has grown, there has been a mess on spectrum auctioning and entry of new players. Do you think the regulator is partly or fully to blame for it?
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