H. D. Deve Gowda

H. D. Deve Gowda was born on 18 May 1933 in Haradanahalli, a village in Holenarasipura Taluk, of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore (now in Hassan, Karnataka). His father Dodde Gowda was a paddy farmer and mother, Devamma was a home maker.[7][8]

Gowdru earned a diploma in civil engineering from L. V. Polytechnic, Hassan, in the early 1950s.[9]

Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh

Deve Gowda and Narendra Modi

Gowda joined the Indian National Congress party in 1953 and remained a member until 1962. During that period, he was President of Anjaneya Cooperative Society of Holenarasipura and later became a member of the Taluk Development Board of Holenarasipura.

In 1962, Gowda was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Holenarasipura constituency as an independent candidate. Later, he was elected from the same constituency to the Assembly for six consecutive terms from 1962 to 1989. He joined the Congress (O) during the Congress split and served as the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly from March 1972 to March 1976 and again from November 1976 to December 1977.[10] During the Emergency (1975–77), he was imprisoned in the Bangalore Central Jail.

Gowda was the two time President of state unit of the Janata Party. He continued to win from Holenarasipur assembly segment on Janata Party's ticket in 1978, 1983 and 1985. He served as a minister in the Janata Party Government in Karnataka headed by Ramakrishna Hegde from 1983 to 1988. When V P Singh joined Janata Dal, Subramanian Swamy formed Janata Party (Jaya Prakash) faction, and Deve Gowda joined him to become Janata Party (JP)'s Karnataka President. But he lost from Holenarasipur in 1989, and soon later rejoined Janata Dal.[11] He became President of the state unit of Janata Dal in 1994 and was the driving force behind the victory of the party in the 1994 State Assembly elections. He was elected from the Ramanagara, and sworn in as the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka in December.

In January 1995, Gowda toured Switzerland and attended the Forum of International Economists. His tour to Singapore brought in foreign investment to the State.[2]

In the 1996 general elections, the Congress party headed by P. V. Narasimha Rao lost decisively but no other party won enough seats to form a government.

When the United Front (a conglomeration of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties) decided to form the Government at the Centre with the support of the Congress, Deve Gowda was unexpectedly chosen to head the government and became the 11th Prime Minister of India.[5] He took over as Prime Minister of India on 1 June 1996 and continued until 21 April 1997. Also, he was the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the United Front, the policy making apex body of all the constituents of the ruling front.[5] He is credited for providing financial closure and kickstarting development of the Delhi Metro Project.[12]

The Janata Dal (Secular) traces its roots back to the Janata Party founded by Jayaprakash Narayan who united all the opposition parties under one banner for the 1977 national elections.

The Janata Dal was formed on the merger of the Janata Party with smaller opposition parties in 1988. Vishwanath Pratap Singh became the first Prime Minister of India from Janata Dal when he headed the National Front government in 1989. Later Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral too became prime ministers heading the United Front (UF) coalition governments in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

In 1999, when some senior leaders of the party decided to join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA, the party split into factions. Many leaders, including Madhu Dandawate and Siddaramaiah, joined the Janata Dal (Secular) faction headed by Deve Gowda, who became the National president of this faction.

He was defeated in the 1999 general elections but staged a comeback by winning the Kanakapura By-elections in 2002.

The 2004 elections in Karnataka witnessed the revival of his party's fortunes under the leadership of Siddaramaiah with the Janata Dal (Secular) winning 58 seats and becoming a part of the ruling coalition in the state. Later, the party joined with the BJP and formed an alternate government in 2006. His son H. D. Kumaraswamy headed the BJP-JD(S) coalition government in the state for 20 months.[13][14] In the 2008 state elections, the party performed poorly and won just 28 seats, but it has remained a significant force in South Karnataka.

Deve Gowda expelled Siddaramaiah and CM Ibrahim JDS party, because Siddaramaiah led AHINDA[15][16][17] movement; representing minority, backward, and Dalit people in Karnataka.[18] Later, both Siddaramaiah and CM Ibrahim joined the Indian National Congress,[19] which won the 2013 Vidhana Sabha election. Siddaramaiah was elected as the Chief Minister of Karnataka state in 2013.[20]

In 2008, JDS did not transfer the power to BJP with B. S. Yediyurappa as CM in accord to the initial negotiation.[21][22][23] This led to major setback for JDS in 2008 vidhana sabha election, JDS received only 28 seats[24] compared to 58 seats[25] in the 2004 vidhana sabha election. Since B. S. Yediyurappa is from Lingayath community, largest in the Karnataka state, many leaders in JDS from Lingayath community such as M.P. Prakash quit the party.[26] B. S. Yediyurappa was elected as the Chief Minister of Karnataka state in 2008.[27] Deve Gowda abused B. S. Yediyurappa, who was then chief minister of Karnataka.[28][29] This event was termed as "new low in Indian politics".[30] Gowda later apologised for hurling abuse at the chief minister of Karnataka.[31]

Both B. S. Yediyurappa and Siddaramaiah eventually became Chief Minister of Karnataka state. JDS party led by Deve Gowda did not make impact in Karnataka politics from 2008 till 2018 general elections. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly general elections, held on 12 May, there was a three-front competition between INC, BJP and JD(S). BJP won 104 seats, INC won 78 seats and JD(S) won 37 seats to become the King-maker. INC did not want to loose out to BJP and hence immediately have offered unconditional support to JD(S), to form the cabinet. But the governor of Karnataka has rejected this majority support and has called on for BS yeddyurappa to become CM and prove majority in 2 weeks. JDS and INC approached supreme court with the allegation on Governor who misused his powers to form the Karnataka state cabinet & showed partiality. And allowed the BJP to form the cabinet with insufficient seats (1.e 104) Supreme court given judgment that BJP have to prove the strength in a day i.e. on 19 May 2018 in the Assembly. On 19 May B. S. Yeddyurappa failed to prove the majority & hence he resigned after an emotional speech on the floor of assembly. On 23 May H. D. Kumaraswamy (Head of coalition INC & JDS) sworn in as CM & proved majority on 25 May on the floor of assembly.[32][33][34][35][36]

Deve Gowda contested the 2019 general elections against G. S. Basavaraj in Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency of Karnataka. G. S. Basavaraj, BJP candidate of Tumkur Constituency won against Deve Gowda by a margin of 13,339 votes. G. S. Basavaraj polled 5,96,127 votes while Deve Gowda got 5,82,788 votes.[36]

He married Chennamma in 1954. They have six children together: four sons, including politicians H. D. Revanna and H. D. Kumaraswamy, who is the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, and two daughters.[37]

Deve Gowda giving a speech

• 1962–1989, 1994–1996 : Member, Karnataka Legislative Assembly (seven terms, losing only in 1989)
• 1972–1976 : Leader of Opposition, Karnataka Legislative Assembly. Elected MLA as NCO candidate from Holenarasipur.[43]
• 1978 : Janata Party Member, Karnataka Legislative Assembly, from Holenarasipur
• 1983–1988 : Minister for Public Works and Irrigation, Janata Party's Government of Karnataka. MLA from Holenarasipur.
• 1989 : Karnataka State President of the new Janata Party (Jaya Prakash) faction. Subramanian Swamy was the national president.[44] He lost assembly election in 1989 as Janata Party (Jaya Prakash) candidate from Holenarasipur [45]
• 1990 : Left Janata Party (JP) of Subramanian Swamy, and joined Janata Dal
• 1991 : Elected to 10th Lok Sabha from Hassan (Lok Sabha constituency) as Janata Dal candidate
• 1991–1994 : Member, Committee on Commerce
  • Member, Joint Parliamentary Committee on Fertilizers
  • Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Agriculture
• 1994 : President, Janata Dal, Karnataka.
• 1994–1996 : Chief Minister of Karnataka, Janata Dal Government
• Jun. 1996 – Apr. 1997 : Prime Minister of India and also in charge of Ministries/Departments of Petroleum and Chemicals, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy, Home Affairs, Agriculture, Food Processing Industries, Urban Affairs and Employment and Non-Conventional Energy Sources
• 1996–1998 : Member, Rajya Sabha
• Nov. 1996-Apr. 1997 : Leader of the House, Rajya Sabha
• 1998 : Re-elected to 12th Lok Sabha (2nd term).
  • National President, Janata Dal (Secular), which he founded in 1999. But he lost in the 13th Lok Sabha General Elections (in 1999) from Hassan to G Putta Swamy Gowda of Congress[46]
• 2002 : Entered 13th Lok Sabha winning a by-election from Kanakpura. (3rd term)
• 2004 : Contested elections for 14th Lok Sabha from two seats.
  • Was elected to 14th Lok Sabha (4th term), from Hassan
  • But lost from Kanakpura, where he came third behind the winner Tejaswini Gowda (Congress) and Ramachandra Gowda (BJP).[47]
• 2006–2008 : Member, Committee on Railways
• 2009 : Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (5th term)
• 31 Aug 2009 : Member, Committee on Defence
• 2014 : Re-elected to 16th Lok Sabha (6th term)
• 1 Sep 2014 : Appointed member, Standing Committee on Defence
• 23 May 2019: Lost from Tumkur in 17th Lok Sabha elections.[48][49] This was the third time he lost a Lok Sabha election as a former Prime Minister, after defeats in 1999 and 2004.
• 2020 : Elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.[50]

• List of prime ministers of India
• List of chief ministers of Karnataka

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