The other Deve Gowda who is giving Siddaramaiah sleepless nights

He is the other Deve Gowda and is no push over. A strong candidate who will battle it out from Chamundeshwari, he will be taking on Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah.

G T Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah go a long way, but in the upcoming Karnataka assembly election, they will face off with each other. Gowda who is the sitting MLA from this constituency has vowed to defeat Siddaramaiah and is ably backed by H D Deve Gowda, the supremo of the JD(S).

Since 1983, Deve Gowda has been associated with Siddaramaiah. Their association spans over a period of 3 decades almost.

Gowda has seen several ups and downs all through his political career. He first won the Zilla Panchayat and became its president. Later he won the Hunsur assembly seat. However, in the parliamentary poll he lost to Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar.

He then fell out with Siddaramaiah and joined the BJP. Later he shifted to the JD(S) and in the 2013 assembly poll he won from Chamundeshwari. On this contest with Siddaramaiah this year, Gowda says that he is confident of defeating the CM.

On a hectic campaign trail, he shares memories of his association with Siddaramaiah. It was quite hard for me to digest that I am contesting against my one-time friend, he says. I always wanted him to become the CM, but then after he came to power, he went after his rivals.

Gowda accuses Siddarramaiah of pulling him down. He worked against me in the Lok Sabha elections and spared no effort to settle scores politically, Gowda also adds.

What makes Gowda so confident of a win? He says that after Siddaramaiah shifted to Varuna, he never visited the constituency from where he has won 5 times. The people are well aware of that. He is playing the emotional card, but then the people want to know why has he suddenly resurfaced after a gap of 10 years.

"My trump card is my accessibility. I am available to the people at all times and they respect that. Tha, however,r is not the case with Siddaramaiah. He has a dictatorial attitude which has not gone down too well with the people. There is resentment against him by the Dalit leadership and these are factors that would go against him", Gowda also says.

If the strategy put in place by Gowda goes well, then who knows he could earn the 'giant killer' tag in the Karnataka assembly election.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates
Date of notification	April 17
Last date to file nominations	April 24
Last date to withdraw nominations	April 27
Date of polling	May 12
Date of counting	May 15