The battle for votes in Karnataka plays out daily on the pages of major newspapers in the run-up to the Assembly election on May 12. Today, newspapers like Times of India, Deccan Herald, The Hindu, New Indian Express, Kannada Prabha, Udayavani, Vijayavani and Vijay Karnataka have jacket ads on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto that was released yesterday. The ad has Prime Minister Narendra Modi towering over BJP President Amit Shah and CM aspirant BS Yeddyurappa and lists various promises including a crop loan waiver of up to Rs 1 lakh, prevention of cow slaughter, free laptops for students enrolling in colleges and so on.

On the front-page, there are quarter page ads informing people of PM’s public meetings scheduled today.

The Congress ads come in the inside pages that pose some questions to the PM and Yeddyurappa. “Do answer, Modi Sir, Yeddyurappa Sir,” it says, with Congress President looking over CM Siddaramaiah and President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwara.

Meanwhile, the Janata Dal (Secular) has chosen regional dailies to place its ads over English dailies. In Vijayavani, it has a full page ad on page 3 after BJP’s manifestos ads. The JD(S) ad features party stalwart HD Deve Gowda, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and JD(S) chief ministerial candidate HD Kumaraswamy.