Hassan: Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda appears to be facing an uphill task in retaining his Hassan parliamentary seat with the energetic ruling Congress led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah pulling out all stops to dislodge him in the Janata Dal (Secular) bastion.
Gowda, who knows fully well that his political rivals, especially Siddaramaiah and Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, have teamed up against him, has been using all his political acumen to outsmart his opponent A Manju of the Congress.A six-time MP, Gowda is seeking re-election for the fifth time from the Hassan constituency.
The Congress is slugging it out to consolidate what it calls anti-Gowda feelings among the constituents. It has netted many prominent JD(S) leaders who have fallen out with Gowda.
The JD(S) national president, on the other hand, has been cleverly working on social engineering – hemming caste and community support in his favour in the constituency, which appears to be witnessing a straight contest between the JD(S) and the Congress. Nevertheless, all the six JD(S) MLAs have been campaigning for the party candidate.
