H. D. Deve Gowda
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Template:Indian nameHaradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (Template:Pronunciation; born 18 May 1933)<ref name="pmindia1">Template:Cite web</ref> is an Indian politician who served as the prime minister of India for nearly 11 months, from 1996 to 1997.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="www.britannica.com">Template:Cite web</ref> He previously served as the chief minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996 and as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha. A member of the Janata Dal (Secular), he has been serving as the party's president since 1999 and has been an MP in the Rajya Sabha representing Karnataka since 2020.<ref name="janata.in">Template:Cite web</ref>
Born in a family of farmers, Deve Gowda joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1953 and remained a member until 1962. He became president of the state unit of the Janata Dal in 1994 and was considered to be a driving force in the party's victory in Karnataka. He served as the chief minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. In the 1996 general elections, no party won enough seats to form a government and Deve Gowda was elected to serve as prime minister as head of the United Front coalition.<ref name="m959">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="w849">Template:Cite web</ref> His premiership lasted for less than a year and he left office in April 1997. After his prime ministerial tenure, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament until his defeat in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Deve Gowda was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020.
Early life and career
H. D. Deve Gowda was born on 18 May 1933 in Haradanahalli, a village in Holenarasipura Taluk, of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore (now in Hassan, Karnataka). His father Dodde Gowda was a paddy farmer and mother, Devamma was a home maker.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gowda earned a diploma in civil engineering from L. V. Polytechnic, Hassan, in the early 1950s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Deve Gowda joined the Indian National Congress party in 1953 and remained a member until 1962. During that period, he was President of Anjaneya Cooperative Society of Holenarasipura and later became a member of the Taluk Development Board of Holenarasipura.
State politics (1962–1996)
In 1962, Deve Gowda was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Holenarasipura constituency as an independent candidate. Later, he was elected from the same constituency to the Assembly for six consecutive terms from 1962 to 1989. He joined the Congress (O) during the Congress split. He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly from March 1972 to March 1976 and from November 1976 to December 1977.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the Emergency in the 1970s, he was imprisoned in the Bangalore Central Jail.
Later, Deve Gowda served as the two-time president of the state unit of the Janata Party. He served as a minister in the Janata Party Government in Karnataka headed by Ramakrishna Hegde from 1983 to 1988. When V.P. Singh joined Janata Dal, Subramanian Swamy formed Janata Party (Jaya Prakash) faction, and Deve Gowda joined him to become Janata Party (JP)'s Karnataka President. He was later defeated from Holenarasipur in 1989, and soon later rejoined Janata Dal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He became president of the state unit of the Janata Dal in 1994 and led the party to victory in the 1994 State Assembly elections. He was elected from the Ramanagara, and sworn in as the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka in December.
As chief minister, Gowda toured Switzerland and attended the Forum of International Economists. His tour to Singapore brought in foreign investment to the State.<ref name="pmindia1"/> He resigned from the position to serve as prime minister following his appointment in 1996.
Primership (1996–1997)
Following the 1996 general elections, P. V. Narasimha Rao government was defeated with no other party winning enough seats to form a government.
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When the United Front (a conglomeration of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties) decided to form the Government at the Centre with the support of the Congress and CPI(M), Deve Gowda was unexpectedly chosen to head the government after V. P. Singh and Jyoti Basu declined.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was sworn-in as the 11th Prime Minister of India in June 1996 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in September 1996 during his tenure as prime minister.<ref name="janata.in"/> During his tenure, he served as the Home Minister and as the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the United Front, the policy-making committee consisting of other coalition party leaders.<ref name="janata.in"/> He is credited for providing financial closure and kickstarting development of the Delhi Metro Project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He left office on 21 April 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> after the Congress revoked its support for Gowda amidst discontent over communication between the coalition and the Congress. It compromised to support a new government under I. K. Gujral, who served as the prime minister from 21 April 1997 to 19 March 1998.
Post-premiership (1997–present)
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He was defeated in the 1999 general elections.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was elected president of the Janata Dal (Secular) the same year.
The 2004 Karnataka state elections witnessed the revival of his party's fortunes under the leadership of Siddaramaiah with the Janata Dal (Secular) winning 58 seats and becoming a part of the ruling coalition in the state. Later, the party joined with the BJP and formed another government in 2006. Deve Gowda's son, H. D. Kumaraswamy, headed the BJP-JD(S) coalition government in the state for 20 months.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The alliance was defeated in 2008. B. S. Yediyurappa was elected as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.<ref name="Oneindia News">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> Deve Gowda verbally abused Yediyurappa.<ref name="abuse1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="abuse3">Template:Cite web</ref> This event was termed as a "new low in Indian politics".<ref name="abuse4">Template:Cite web</ref> Deve Gowda later apologised for hurling abuse at him.<ref name="abuse2">Template:Cite web</ref>
Deve Gowda expelled Siddaramaiah and CM Ibrahim from the JD(S) in 2005.<ref name="Ahinda1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Ahinda2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Ahinda3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="The Hindu">Template:Cite web</ref> Later, both Siddaramaiah and CM Ibrahim joined the Indian National Congress,<ref name="Siddaramaiah joins Congress">Template:Cite web</ref> which won the 2013 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, with Siddaramaiah being elected as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.<ref name="NDTV.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
Deve Gowda contested the 2019 general elections against G. S. Basavaraj in Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency of Karnataka. G. S. Basavaraj, BJP candidate of Tumkur Constituency won against Deve Gowda by a margin of 13,339 votes. G. S. Basavaraj polled 596,127 votes while Deve Gowda got 582,788 votes.<ref name="Siddaramaiah sworn in as Karnataka Chief Minister">Template:Cite web</ref> He has been elected to Rajya Sabha.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
He married Chennamma in 1954. They have six children together: four sons, including politicians H. D. Revanna and H. D. Kumaraswamy, who is a former Chief Minister of Karnataka, and two daughters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He is the father-in-law of politician Anitha Kumaraswamy and grandfather of actor Nikhil Kumaraswamy, politicians Prajwal Revanna and Suraj Revanna.
In 2025, Gowda was hospitalised in Bengaluru after he developed urinary tract infection.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Electoral history
| Year | Constituency | Party | Result | Votes | Opposition Candidate | Opposition Party | Opposition votes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Holenarasipur | IND | Template:Won | 12,622 | H. D. Doddegowda | INC | 7,338 | <ref name="elections.in">Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 1967 | Holenarasipur | IND | Template:Won | 20,594 | H. D. Doddegowda | INC | 12,191 | <ref name="elections.in"/> |
| 1972 | Holenarasipur | INC(O) | Template:Won | 26,639 | K. Kumaraswamy | INC | 20,475 | <ref name="elections.in"/> |
| 1978 | Holenarasipur | JNP | Template:Won | 33,992 | K. Kumaraswamy | INC | 28,472 | <ref name="elections.in"/> |
| 1983 | Holenarasipur | JNP | Template:Won | 37,239 | K. Kumaraswamy | INC | 28,158 | <ref name="elections.in"/> |
| 1985 | Holenarasipur | JNP | Template:Won | 41,230 | G. Puttaswamy Gowda | IND | 38,063 | <ref name="elections.in"/> |
| 1985 | Sathanur | JNP | Template:Won | 45,612 | D. K. Shivakumar | INC | 29,809 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 1989 | Holenarasipur | JNP | Template:Lost | 45,461 | G. Puttaswamy Gowda | INC | 53,297 | <ref name="elections.in"/> |
| 1994 | Ramanagara | JD | Template:Won | 47,986 | C. M. Lingappa | INC | 38,392 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| Year | Constituency | Party | Result | Votes | Opposition Candidate | Opposition Party | Opposition votes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Hassan | JNP | Template:Won | 2,60,761 | H. C. Srikantaiah | INC | 2,57,570 | <ref name="elections.in hassan">Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 1998 | Hassan | JD | Template:Won | 3,36,407 | H. C. Srikantaiah | INC | 3,04,753 | <ref name="elections.in hassan"/> |
| 1999 | Hassan | JD(S) | Template:Lost | 2,56,587 | G. Putta Swamy Gowda | INC | 3,98,344 | <ref name="elections.in hassan"/> |
| 2002 (bypoll) |
Kanakapura | JD(S) | Template:Won | 5,81,709 | D. K. Shivakumar | INC | 5,29,133 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 2004 | Hassan | JD(S) | Template:Won | 4,62,625 | H. C. Srikantaiah | INC | 2,72,320 | <ref name="elections.in hassan"/> |
| 2004 | Kanakapura | JD(S) | Template:Lost | 4,62,320 | Tejashwini Sreeramesh | INC | 2,72,320 | <ref>2004 General Election eci.gov.in Template:Dead link</ref> |
| 2009 | Hassan | JD(S) | Template:Won | 4,96,429 | K. H. Hanume Gowda | BJP | 2,05,316 | <ref name="elections.in hassan"/> |
| 2014 | Hassan | JD(S) | Template:Won | 5,09,841 | A. Manju | INC | 4,09,379 | <ref name="elections.in hassan"/> |
| 2019 | Tumkur | JD(S) | Template:Lost | 5,82,788 | G. S. Basavaraj | BJP | 5,96,127 | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
Positions held
See also
References
External links
Template:Commons category Template:Wikiquote
- Template:Official website
- Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda Prime Ministers Office, Archived
Template:S-start Template:S-off Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft |- Template:S-ppo Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-inc Template:S-end Template:Prime Ministers of India Template:Home Ministry (India) Template:Energy Ministries and Departments of India Template:Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (India) Template:KarnatakaChiefMinisters Template:15th LS members from Karnataka Template:16th LS members from Karnataka Template:Authority control
- 1933 births
- Living people
- People from Hassan district
- Prime ministers of India
- Chief ministers of Karnataka
- Gowda administration
- Indian National Congress politicians from Karnataka
- Indian National Congress (Organisation) politicians
- Janata Dal (Secular) politicians
- Janata Dal politicians
- Janata Party politicians
- Samajwadi Janata Party politicians
- Kannada people
- Ministers of internal affairs of India
- Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka
- Lok Sabha members from Karnataka
- Indian people imprisoned during the Emergency (India)
- Leaders of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly
- Chief ministers from Janata Dal
- Agriculture ministers of India
- Ministers of power of India
- Mysore MLAs 1962–1967
- Mysore MLAs 1967–1972
- Mysore MLAs 1972–1977
- Karnataka MLAs 1978–1983
- Karnataka MLAs 1983–1985
- Karnataka MLAs 1985–1989
- India MPs 1991–1996
- India MPs 1998–1999
- India MPs 1999–2004
- India MPs 2004–2009
- India MPs 2009–2014
- India MPs 2014–2019