H D Deve Gowda: News

India has always been blessed with personalities who saw social justice as the end goal of any movement. H.D. Deve Gowda belongs to the higher echelons of such social crusaders. It’s said that only a person who has experienced hardships themselves will understand the hardships of others. Being from an agrarian background, Deve Gowda understood the plight of farmers and the downtrodden. Born on May 18, 1933, in Haradanahalli, Karnataka, he joined politics at the age of 20 after obtaining a diploma from L.V. Polytechnic, Hassan. He was part of the Congress party from 1953-1962. In 1962, he was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Holenarasipura as an independent candidate. He was elected from the same constituency till 1989. In 1994, he became the state President of Janata Dal and played an instrumental role in the party’s victory in the state. Two years later, Deve Gowda was presented with something that he himself couldn’t have fathomed. The 1996 general elections saw the Congress party under the leadership of P. V. Narasimha Rao suffer a loss. However, a lack of a majority for any party to form the government led to a stalemate. It was in this scenario that a United Front with the support of Congress decided to form a government and Deve Gowda was selected as the 11th Prime Minister of India. Although his term lasted only till April 1997, he is credited with making the Delhi Metro a reality.