Deve Gowda to contest Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka

The Janata Dal (Secular) on Monday (June 8) announced that its president and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda would contest the Rajya Sabha elections that are scheduled to be held on June 19.

Gowda has decided to contest in the polls from Karnataka at the request of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, his party legislators as well as other leaders. Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Gowda’s son, HD Kumaraswamy, said the party chief would file the nomination on Tuesday (June 9).

Deve Gowda had announced in January that he was not much interested in contesting Rajya Sabha polls. The JD(S) leader had said he would work towards strengthening his party.

Former Prime Minister HD Devegowda (in file pic) has decided to contest Rajya Sabha polls at the request of our party legislators, Congress President Sonia Gandhi&many other leaders. Tomorrow, he’ll be filing nomination: HD Kumaraswamy, Janata Dal (Secular). #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/kPW0i6dtig

— ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2020

The elections will held to four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, after Rajeev Gowda and BK Hari Prasad of the Congress, D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S) and Prabhakar Kore of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had retired.

Gowda had left his traditional stronghold, Hassan, from where he was elected five times between 1991 and 2014, to his grandson Prajwal Revanna in the Lok Sabha elections last year. He had contested from the Tumkuru seat. While Revanna had won, Gowda lost to BJP candidate GS Basavaraj by around 13,000 votes.