Bengaluru: The people of Karnataka will vote on May 12 in the assembly election that is crucial for both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress and the BJP, which has deployed its whole arsenal of star campaigners including Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bid to take the southern state from the Congress's hold. If the BJP wins, it would boost the party's pan-India march toward the south, especially after extending its influence in the north-east in recent assembly elections. A Congress win would reinforce the party's claim that the BJP's brand of politics does not have takers everywhere. The Karnataka assembly election is going to be a close fight, opinion polls show, with political parties trying to attract the influential castes such as the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas.