A man who has been the country’s Prime Minister and Karnataka Chief Minister, the grand patriarch of a party that is part of the ruling coalition in Karnataka- HD Deve Gowda has suffered his third ever loss in his long political career.
After winning as an MLA six times and as an MP six times, 87-year-old HD Deve Gowda has lost in the Tumkur constituency of Karnataka. And what is most ironic is that Deve Gowda had vacated his safe seat for his grandson, to further the dynasty in the state.
Deve Gowda had to give up his home constituency -- Hassan to his grandson Prajwal Revanna. The veteran politician was mulling over contesting from Mandya. However, his other grandson Nikhil was fielded from the segment as it is a stronghold of the JD(S). While Prajwal has won from his seat, Nikhil has lost.
BJP’s GS Basavaraj, the Lingayat strongman and four-time MP from the region, has managed to defeat Deve Gowda, by securing a wafer-thin majority. Basavaraj had managed to get 5,96,127 votes while Deve Gowda got 582788 votes. The margin is just above 13,000 votes.
A constituency, which rarely elects the sitting MP to power, Tumkur was viewed as a challenge for the Congress-JD(S) alliance, especially since the Congress had won the seat in 2014.
“Deve Gowda contesting from Tumkur was a good thing as it became easier for me. He was the mannina maga (son of the soil) in Hassan but he betrayed the people of Tumkur. He fought tooth and nail so people of Tumkur do not get the water they need. I thank all the party workers and leaders who worked hard for my victory. This is a win for Prime Minister Modi,” GS Basavaraj told TNM.
Basavaraj is contesting for the eighth time from Tumkur. He contested and won on a Congress ticket in 1984, 1989 and 1999. However, he quit the Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and won the seat.
77-year-old Basavaraj put up a strong fight against Deve Gowda, especially after he began telling his constituents that Deve Gowda had denied the people of Tumkur water.
During Basavaraj’s election campaign, BJP leaders had said on many occasions that the people of Tumkur must not trust the Congress-JD(S) coalition as Deve Gowda was personally responsible for the district’s water woes.
Basavaraj alleged that Deve Gowda had issued specific instructions to his son and the Karnataka Minister for Public Works, HD Revanna to not release water for Tumkur (24 TMC) from the Hemavati Dam, and instead divert it to Hassan, which is Deve Gowda’s home turf.
Deve Gowda retaliated with like a veteran and reminded the constituents of the contributions he made as the Minister for Public Works and Irrigation in 1982. Deve Gowda also reminded the people that it was he, who had resigned from his post as Irrigation Minister, when the government refused to carry out the projects he recommended. However, he was considered an outsider in Tumkur and failed to gather the support of the electorate.
Speculation was rife that Deve Gowda, a Vokkaliga would fail to garner the votes of the dominant Lingayat community, the Dasa-Vokkaliga community and the votes of Dalits in Tumkur. It was not just the caste equation that JD(S) used to bank on which seems to have failed for Deve Gowda, but a strong Modi factor too has helped the BJP surge in the constituency.
Other than this, former Congress MP Muddahanumegowda who was not offered a ticket to contest from Tumkur this time around as the party had offered the seat to its alliance partner – the JD(S). Supporters of Muddahanumegowda had openly rebelled against Deve Gowda and speculation was rife that they even worked against him, ultimately leading to his defeat.