Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda will contest from the Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency in south Karnataka, a party official said on Saturday.

"Deve Gowda will file his nomination on March 25 at the deputy commissioner's office at Tumkur as a joint candidate of the JD-S-Congress alliance," said JD-S spokesman Ramesh Babu in a statement here.

Tumkur is about 70 km northwest of the state capital Bengaluru.

The 85-year-old Gowda has shifted his parliamentary constituency from Hassan, about 180 km from here, after representing it for a record six times since 1991 to pave the way for his grandson Prajwal to contest in his place for the first time.

Prajwal, the only son of Deve Gowda's second son and state PWD Minister H.D. Revanna, filed his nomination on March 22 from the Hassan parliamentary seat, which is the traditional bastion of the Gowda clan.

Polling in Tumkur and Hassan will be held in the first phase on April 18 along with 12 other seats in the central and southern regions of the state.

Polling in the remaining 14 seats will be held in the second phase on April 23.

Vote count in all the 28 Lok Sabha seats across the state will be on May 23.

--IANS

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