Despite victory, Gowda's dreams dashed

Former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda’s unimpressive show in his home state of Karnataka has put paid to his aspirations of playing a key role on national scene through the much touted Third Front which took a beating at the national level also.

Keeping aside his health problems, Gowda, considered one of the prime movers of the third front, plunged into the thick of electioneering, criss-crossing the state attacking BJP’s governance, hoping to reap an impressive harvest of seats that would give him good leverage at the national level.

Gowda, who turns 77 tomorrow, won hands down by a whopping margin of 2.91 lakh votes in his bastion Hassan against weak Congress and BJP candidates— B Shivaramu and K H Hanumegowda respectively.

Gowda’s son and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who had created a flutter with his hush-hush meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi ahead of the polls, cruised to a comfortable win with a margin of over one lakh votes.

Seeking to downplay his son’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Gowda had said “I am neither interested in becoming a King nor a King maker”. Ironically, this has become a reality with the Third Front, launched in Karnataka on March 12, ending up with 68 seats and UPA all set to form government on its own.

If victory margins are the yardstick to decide who’s the tallest leader, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda towers above the rest by defeating his rival by 2.91 lakh votes. Gowda fought and won from his traditional stronghold of Hassan constituency against rival Hanume Gowda of BJP.

BJP’s Siddeswara G M clocked the lowest in margin — 2,024 votes — over Congress candidate Mallikarjun S S from Davangere. Besides Gowda, four candidates managed to win by more than one lakh votes - H D Kumaraswamy from Bangalore rural (1.30 lakh), Janardhana Swamy from Chitradurga (1.36 lakh), Prahlad Joshi from Dharwad (1.38 lakh) and Angadi Suresh Channabasappa from Belgaum (1.19 lakh).

Udasi Shivkumar Chanabasappa of BJP won by 88,220 votes and Shivaramagouda Shivanagouda, also of BJP, secured a margin of 81,789 votes in Koppal, came in the second rung.