RS polls: Why Deve Gowda emerged consensus candidate

BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda is all set to enter Rajya Sabha for the second time in his nearly six-decade-long political career. The patriarch decided to file his nomination papers on Tuesday after he informally emerged the consensus candidate of all three major parties — BJP, Congress and JD(S).
Sources said the 87-year-old was reluctant to contest as he was apprehensive about BJP fielding a third candidate to humiliate him. But the party chose to field only two nominees, probably to send out a message to the dominant Vokkaliga community — which Gowda belongs to — and consolidate its support base and make further inroads in the Congress and JD(S) bastion. BJP had forayed into the Vokkaliga heartland during last year’s Lok Sabha elections and bypolls.
“It is a win-win situation for all three parties. By supporting Gowda’s candidature indirectly, BJP has managed to neutralise Congress’ effort to gain advantage by backing Gowda,” said a senior BJP leader.
Congress has had its share of achievement as well. KPCC president DK Shivakumar, who’s looking to emerge out of shadows of the Gowdas — who are seen as champions of the Vokkaliga community — openly offered to support Gowda by transferring the party’s surplus votes apparently to woo back the community, which had deserted Congress under the previous regime of Dinesh Gundu Rao. This despite resistance from the Siddaramaiah camp.
The biggest beneficiary of Gowda’s candidature is JD(S). Not only has the party managed to reclaim its voice nationally but has also been forced to join hands to get Gowda elected and save itself from the peril of getting extinct. JD(S) has been facing the danger of being disintegrated due to severe discontentment against the party leadership: Sources said several sitting MLAs were planning to defect en masse to Congress and BJP.
If the party had fielded any candidate other than Gowda, sources said there were chances of MLAs cross-voting just to humiliate the leadership.
An elated former chief minister and JD(S) floor leader HD Kumaraswamy took to Twitter to express his joy. He said Gowda’s candidature is crucial to boost the morale of party workers. “His presence in Parliament is needed in the present political situation prevailing in the country,” he added.

Gowda was RS member for two years when he was prime minister in 1996.