The Janata Dal (Secular), which believed it could play a major role in the post-poll scenario by cobbling together a third alternative in the event of the two national parties falling short of the requisite numbers, has suffered a setback. But being a regional player in Karnataka, it has done creditably given the party has retained its strength in the Lok Sabha, with two seats in this election.
The defeat of the former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, is a rude shock to the party since he has been enjoying victory in electoral politics for nearly two decades. Mr. Kumaraswamy entered politics in 1996 and made it straight to the Lok Sabha, at a time when his father, H.D. Deve Gowda, went on to become the Prime Minister.
The victory at Mandya (C.S. Puttaraju) has enabled the JD(S) to regain the seat which it had lost to Ramya of the Congress in the byelection held in 2013, after N. Cheluvarayaswamy resigned the seat having won the Nagamangala seat in the Legislative Assembly elections. Mr. Puttaraju was the JD(S) candidate in the byelection as well. Of the 24 constituencies from where it contested, the JD(S) narrowly lost in two constituencies — Chickballapur and Kolar. While Mr. Kumaraswamy lost to Union Minister M. Veerappa Moily, at Kolar, a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Kesava lost to Union Minister K.H. Muniyappa.
Hassan has remained loyal to the JD(S) and to Mr. Deve Gowda, although he had on one occasion lost to the former Congress Minister, the late G. Puttaswamy Gowda.
With his victory in the elections, Mr. Deve Gowda has exhibited that he still enjoys the confidence of the people of Hassan.
Confined to Karnataka and Kerala after the split of the erstwhile Janata Dal, the JD(S) could not win even a single seat in the 1999 elections from Karnataka. In the 2004 elections, JD(S) had won three seats — two in Karnataka and one in Kerala — and in 2009, it won three seats, all in Karnataka (Bangalore Rural, Mandya and Hassan). Although Mr. Kumaraswamy has accepted his defeat and has said that it is actually a “victory” for the people of the State, who wanted him to continue in State politics, it is apparent that his decision to contest from Chickballapur was a mistake, party sources said.
