BENGALURU/TUMAKURU: The JDS leaders may still be pondering over reasons for former PM HD Deve Gowda’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections as his decision to contest from Tumkur came after carefully analyzing all factors.

However, according to Congress leaders who worked closely with him during the elections, Gowda’s failure to take CPI and BSP into confidence, and his own party MLAs’ failure to give him the lead were the major factors that worked against him. Even local Congress leaders seem to not have supported him.

Gowda lost the election to BJP’s GS Basavaraju by a margin of 13,000 votes, while CPI candidate N Shivanna got 17,227 votes and BSP candidate got 6,013 votes. “We had requested Gowda to take these parties into confidence before the elections so that we could avoid votes being split,” said a Congress leader. “We told him twice, but he just ignored the suggestion,” he added. According to the Congress leader, it would not have been difficult for the former prime minister to talk to CPI and BSP senior leaders and get their support.

Sources said before taking the decision to contest from Tumkur, the JDS supremo had looked into various reports prepared by Congress leaders and also got inputs from his party leaders in the district. “BJP candidate Basavaraju is very popular, but Gowda could have won if the JDS leaders had taken local Congress workers into confidence,” said a Congress leader.

From a mere 22,000 votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls for the BJP in Madhugiri assembly constituency, the numbers rose to more than 72,000 catapulting G S Basavaraju to win in constituency represented by the JDS. Similarly, in Tumkur Rural and Gubbi constituencies though there were JDS MLAs, BJP secured a lead of over 10,000 and 2,000 votes respectively.

Interestingly, though Chikkanayakanahalli and Turuvekere have BJP MLAs, Deve Gowda got a lead of 20,000 and 7,000 respectively as both these constituencies were originally JDS strongholds. It was only during the 2018 assembly polls that the BJP had won.

Even Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara could not get a significant lead for the coalition candidate in Koratagere, and the BJP, which had no base there at all, secured 72,857 votes as against the JDS candidate’s 77,120.

Meanwhile, a K N Rajanna supporter said: “Our leader had caught hold of the Congress leaders both in Madhugiri and Koratagere and ensured that BJP gets a solid majority.”