The change in the profile of the constituency from a reserved segment to a general constituency is likely to have a lot of impact on the voting pattern.

While all the three contestants from the major parties are new faces in the constituency, the rebel candidate M Muniswamy, who is contesting as an independent, is the only local person. Congressman N A Harris, who had unsuccessfully contested from Shivajinagar in the past, is confident of winning. But the JD(S) candidate Bishop Dr Francis M Jackson, who had also unsuccessfully contested as an independent candidate from Bharatinagar in 2004 and the BJP candidate D U Mallikarjuna, who is a political novice, could play spoilsport.

The Congress rebel M Muniswamy  poses a challenge to Harris. Muniswamy’s past poll record is impressive - so far he has contested four assembly elections and won twice. The winning margins were 32,000 and 25,000 in two elections, when he lost the battle in 1999 it was by 300 votes and in the 2004, it was 1,400 votes.
Shantinagar, despite being located in the heart of the city is a neglected area. It has a large number of slums interspersed with posh localities. Voters, who said they wanted a performing and trustworthy representative, are themselves confused as to who could qualify for this.

Harris, a businessman, is banking on his party’s image. Harris feels that citizens would definitely want a young representative. Being a Muslim, he is also depending on the 30,000 odd Muslim voters.

 Bishop Francis M Jackson, feels that the one lakh and odd Christian (both converted and Anglo-Indians) and Tamil speaking Dalit voters in the constituency will favour him.

The BJP, which had an MLA from Shantinagar last time, is trying to make a comeback. The party’s candidate D U Mallikarjuna, feels that the former MLA S Raghu’s performance will work in his favour. The party hopes the division of Muslim votes between Congress and JD (S) will help it to victory.