File photo of Nandan Nilekani campaigning in Bangalore South
Campaigning has ended in Karnataka and all 28 seats will go to the polls on Thursday.
State capital Bangalore is being keenly fought over by politicians. There are three city seats - North, South and Central. Bangalore South will perhaps be the most-closely watched where sitting MP Ananth Kumar is taking on the Congress' Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys.
Like Bangalore North and Bangalore Central, Bangalore South is a seat the BJP won five years ago. And when it comes to campaigning in this urban, relatively affluent part of the city, the sitting candidate, Ananth Kumar, has been there-done that. He has been elected here five times in a row.
"All our workers and supporters of BJP are in a gung-ho spirit and they are very confident, super confident that a Narendra Modi-led government will come at the Centre and all the three seats BJP will win in Bangalore," Mr Kumar told NDTV.
"Whatever has happened in Bangalore, it has been done by BJP, from airport to Cauvery to Metro. Therefore I can only offer that better Bengaluru, better Bharat," he added.
But there is an interesting challenge this time in the form of Nandan Nilekeni Version 3.0. After leaving Infosys to head the Aadhar project, the co-founder of the IT giant has rebooted his career once again - this time into the political sphere. He is not overawed by the many years of political experience of his opponent.
"I think there is a huge anti-Ananth Kumar wave in Bengaluru South...The irony is that after 18 years, he still has to ask for votes on the name of his new boss," he told NDTV, and added "I intend to be a champion for Bengaluru, I intend to fight for its future, I intend to get projects and funds for Bengaluru and make it a city of opportunity, for our young people."
Mr Nilekani also said he was looking forward to catching up on sleep lost during the campaign.
Challenging the two men from the big national parties are two of the few women candidates from the state - Ruth Manorama of the Janata Dal (Secular) and Nina Nayak from the new kid on the block - the Aam Aadmi Party.
Bangalore Central sees the sitting MLA, PC Mohan of the BJP - he is banking on what he describes as the Modi wave to carry him into a third term. Another ex-Infosys man will take him on - V Balakrishnan of the AAP, who exchanged the boardroom for broomsticks. The Congress has fielded a young man, youth Congress leader Rizwan Arshad. Dancer Nandini Alva represents the JD(S) and campaigned with her famous son-in-law Vivek Oberoi.
And finally, Bangalore North - which was chosen for one of the Congress primaries, an idea mooted by Rahul Gandhi. C Narayanaswamy won that round to get the party ticket. He takes on a former chief minister, the ever smiling Sadananda Gowda of the BJP. An ex-policeman from the JD(S), Abdul Azeem and a former law professor, Babu Mathew from AAP are also among the hopefuls.
The BJP made it three out of three in the Bangalore city seats last time round - and they have fielded two of those sitting MPs once again. But there are interesting challengers out there, and a Congress government in place in the state. The Congress does probably hope to do better in Karnataka than elsewhere - so the BJP cannot take its hold on Bangalore city for granted.