For 70-year-old Mahesh Gowda of Kanavinakoppa in Thirthahalli, it will be his 10th gram panchayat election. He has been elected from Mandagadde panchayat for nine consecutive terms since 1972.
Mr. Gowda got into electoral politics a couple of years after he completed his pre-university education. When he contested in 1972, he was 22. “I filed the nomination papers curious to know how people would respond and I won. Since then, I have been contesting,” he said.
In the last nine terms, he was elected twice to head the panchayat and served as vice-president three times. Given the change in reservation of wards, he shifted to different wards in the panchayat and won. “I have a record of winning with huge margins in the taluk. Once I got 600 of the total 700 votes polled,” he said.
Right now, he is busy campaigning in Lingapura-2 ward with 770 votes. “I go alone and spend a couple of hours in each house, talking to the family members. They know me well and I request their suggestions and move forward,” he said. Mr. Gowda, a farmer, added that he has never spent money to win an election.
In his earlier days, all the candidates were like him, spending no money on the campaign. “Only in recent years have people begun to spend huge sums of money. My opponents are also spending ₹7 lakh to ₹8 lakh. But I am not. I am happy if the people elect me, but there is no disappointment otherwise,” he said.
All these years, he has never attempted to get to the taluk or zilla panchayats. “I cannot afford to spend money on the campaign for TP or ZP elections. I have no ambition to build a career in politics,” Mr. Gowda said.
He has decided that this will be his last election. “I was thinking of not contesting this time. However, friends and family members forced me to contest one more time and finish with my tenth term,” he said.