When BJP pulled out that record breaking performance in 2004, emerging as the single largest party in Karnataka Assembly with 79 seats leaving a stunned Congress behind, it had to thank the three coastal districts to quite an extent. Dakshina Kannada(DK), with Mangalore as its focal point, Udupi, the famous temple town district and Uttar Kannada(UK), with Karwar as its headquarters, has ever since the 1980s been the backbone of the party. In 2004 by winning 15 of the 20 seats in this region, BJP had taken a stranglehold over it.

This region with a more than the State average (11 odd percent) population of Muslims as well as Christians, has been the fertile ground for the Sangh Parivar to successfully conduct its hindutva experiments. And the success of that experiment reached its peak in 2004, when it not only 15 of the 20 seats for the Assembly, but also won all the three lok Sabha seats.

While it is that performance which continues to ride the BJP's campaign at present too, it also has its pitfalls. And it is these pitfalls which a party faces when it performs above par in the previous elections, which gives hope for its rivals in the next elections. And Congress is basing its hope on improving its performance on this factor. Having won just five seats last time, its hopes of improving its performance is justified, despite wrong ticket distribution in three of the eight seats in Dakshina Kannada and in a couple out of five in UK.

What however is striking about this region as one travels across its length through the coast, is that the hindutva sentiment aroused by the Sangh Parivar through a combination of constant campaigns like Virat Hindu Sammelans, creating periodic communal tensions and also convincing the need for Hindu unity through some purposeful social work, has been kept alive. "Scratch the surface and the hindutva feelings comes out pouring with many of the educated middle classes in this entire region", an academic in the Mangalore University, points out.
Because of the stringent election commission norms, though there are no saffron flags visible in the region, saffron thoughts are palpable. "Our entire village is BJP", Satish a youth from a village near Honnavar, in a hurry to catch a vehicle organised to bring crowds to Narendra Modi rally in Bhatkal says. Asked the reason behind it, he says, "We are all Hindus".

Virtually every village in the region has a unit of the Hindu Jagran Manch or Bajrang Dal, and its influence or rather its hold is strong. "These Bajrang Dal youths create a lot of noise and even problems, but we can't do anything", says Subash Poojar in a village near Kundapur.

Despite these strong advantages, BJP cannot sit back and rest on its past laurels however. One is because of the rebel factor in some of its strongholds like Puttur in DK and even in a couple of seats in UK. Also the fatigue factor may work against some of its candidates, who have been wining two or three times in a row in some of these seats.

The region which is dominated by various communities like the billavas (toddy tappers), Moghaveera (fishermen), both divided between the Congress and BJP, bunts largely with the BJP and assorted other communities all divided between the two parties. Christians Muslims are by and large with the BJP. The region also has hardly any presence of the SCs though STs do dominate in some parts. With such a pattern and virtually non-existence of lingayats in the region, BJP's base is very different here.

Meanwhile Congress, the traditional and only serious rival to the BJP in the entire region, is trying to put up a stiff challenge and has succeeded to a large extent. This is despite the divided leadership and wrong ticket distribution. Also the stakes are very high for the central party leadership here, as four of the senior officials of the AICC hail from here, including Margaret Alva, Oscar Fernandes, Veerappa Moily and B.K.Hariprasad, not to mention the former AICC General Secretary Janardhan Poojary. It is an open secret that these leaders have been at logger heads with each other over the years, and even now it is said that despite the unity displayed in the open, the Moily-Poojary war continues subtly.

BJP has always capitalized on these differences and this time too it is trying, by encouraging dummy candidates from each others' camp.

With just two days to go for the campaigning to end for the second phase of polling both the parties are leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters. Congress has been pulling all stops by getting both Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia to the region in quick succession. Obviously with stakes so high for the senior AICC functionaries, it is a personal challenge for all of them. BJP is also pulling no stops, and the presence of Narendra Modi in the region in the last couple of days has also boosted the workers morale.

The battle for the coast therefore would decide whether BJP can touch the magic three figure mark, which can propel them to power. For Congress unless it breaches this BJP bastion, its hopes of emerging as the single largest party, will not be realised. And incidentally, even at this stage neither Congress nor BJP seems to be heading towards a position to provide a single party government.