As Turkey heads back to the polls on March 31 for nationwide local elections, Istanbul is set to emerge as a major battleground that could set the tone of Turkish politics for years to come. The race in the megacity of 15 million will see the incumbent mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) try to hold on for a second term after a resounding victory in 2019. His main challenger is Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Murat Kurum, a young, technocratic figure that president Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes will whisk voters away from Imamoglu – one of the emb…