Deve Gowda desperately seeks sympathy in Vokkaliga heartland

"But here our own people are trying to destroy me politically," he says. He doesn’t take names but the reference to Hegde is obvious. The attempt is clearly to play on emotions and evoke sympathy.

And in fact, at a meeting in Mandya to condole the death of a local politician, Gowda was so overcome by emotion that he actually cried, wiping the tears with a towel passed on to him by an SPG official.

Gowda began his campaigning from the Vokkaliga heartland –Kanakapura and Mandya. Two constituencies where there is much prestige at stake for him personally than for the JD. He’s waging a proxy war in Kanakapura represented by son Kumaraswamy. The stakes are no less in Mandya where film star Ambareesh has been fielded.

Kumaraswamy won last time on the crest of a big wave in the party’s favour. Things are not the same now. The party is in bad shape having had lost the Ramanagaram Assembly seat, held by Gowda when he was chief minister. This segment forms part of the Kanakapura Lok Sabha constituency, the biggest in the country with an electorate close to two million.

Gowda and family might be from Hassan district but they are no strangers to Kanakapura. They own lands irrigated by the Cauvery in one part of the constituency.If voters’ reactions are anything to go by, the JD is on slippery ground. Says Appaji Gowda, a farmer from Ramanagaram: "Last time we voted for Gowda and his son because we thought they would do something good for us. But for foundation stoneswe didn’t get anything. I am a Vokkaliga too like Deve Gowda but this time my vote is not for his son."

Gowda has still not visited Hassan from where he is contesting but will campaign there early next week. Early reports indicate that he may not face much of a problem there, with rather weak candidates pitted against him.