BENGALURU: Former PM HD Deve Gowda filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seat on Tuesday, with his party’s 34 seats. This is the second time he is going to the Upper House -- during his first stint, he was elected PM in 1996. Political watchers recall a strange series of coincidences: In 1994, Gowda was elected chief minister with 115 members, and the Congress came a poor third with 34 seats, just like the JDS position now.
Curiously, Mallikarjun Kharge, who now joins Gowda in the RS, was leader of the Congress in the Assembly. Then, it was former DyCM SM Krishna, who was defeated from Maddur, who got Gowda’s support to enter RS. Krishna went on to become CM and later, Union External Affairs Minister. This is the fresh lease that JDS seeks for Gowda. KPCC chief DK Shivakumar was then independent MLA from Sathnur.
In another twist, Prabhakar Kore, then in the Congress, was the RS favourite with the full support of former PM Narasimha Rao, but was pipped at the last minute by Krishna; this time, he is in the BJP and his party has decided on a new face. Asked about this, Kore only said, “What to do?!”