Its carnival time on the electoral calendar. And a time bruised ambition, petty turf wars and deflated egos as the parties finalise the tickets for the six states slated to go for polls this winter. The star campaingers, the BJP's Narendra Modi and the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi have already hit the campaign trail in Chattisgarh where the carnival is coming to an end as the youngest state is also first of the lock.

For Rahul, the state is important as he has spent a fair amount of time wooing the tribal belt in the state. His earlier electoral trackrecordd has not been so remarkable. The Congress - and the young leader himself - is hoping that the tribals of Bastar dont let him down. Modi however has been rehearsing his campaign talk for the general elections, talkign terror in the Naxal hit state while the CM Raman Singh talks of development, some would say he took his time raising this issue, waiting till the fag end of his tenure.

And though local issues tend to dominate and usually have a decisive role the politics of the centre also come into play. More so as the Congress has not fielded any chief ministerial candidates in the states where its not in power, the BJP has shifted its attack to the centre, where UPA is in power and is attacking the government for its track record on inflation and terror. The BJP is also trying to follow the Modi model and is buidling its campaign around it's chief ministerial candidate. Different strokes, but one common goal: both want a score of 3:1 on the electoral score card in the four hi profile states.