Political parties in Karnataka are still waiting to kickstart their campaigns for the Assembly elections next month but one person, though he is not in the electoral fray, has been campaigning with such gusto that even the Election Commission has begun taking note. Ashok Kheny, best known as the managing director of the company implementing the country's first private infrastructure project, the Rs 2,250 crore-Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), has been crisscrossing Karnataka, asking voters to exercise their right to vote but to choose national parties over regional parties. Even before major parties could dole out sops to voters, Ashok Kheny, whose cousin Sanjay Kheny is contesting the polls on a BJP ticket from the Bidar South constituency, has promised cows for widows in all villages in the state, sewing machines for women and hostels for poor rural youth under the aegis of an Ashok Kheny Fans Association. Kheny's campaign has however been viewed in some circles as an attempt to fight former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda