JOIN USNeither a king nor a kingmaker
His son Kumaraswamy, who had recently met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to engineer a post-poll alliance, stated on Saturday that the Congress may not need small parties now and that his party will sit in the Opposition benches.
The only consolation to the grand old man of Karnataka politics is that his party has increased its number by one seat compared to 2004 polls. Besides, the huge victory margins of Deve Gowda (2,91,000 votes) and Kumaraswamy (1,30,275 votes) from Hassan and Bangalore Rural respectively, have once again proved they are the undisputed leaders in the party.
This is the first time Gowda has won with such a huge margin. In fact, he has a created a record of sorts in the State by winning such an impressive margin.
N Cheluvarayaswamy is another JD(S) leader to win from Mandya. In Tumkur, the party ended up in the second place.
Altogether, the results have also proved the party has a strong support base in the Vokkaliga belt of old Mysore region.
The JD(S) was hopeful of winning at least five to six seats in the State. It had pinned hopes of winning on Tumkur, Mysore and Belgaum, but ended up in third place in Mysore and Belgaum. Gowda had always said that his party is neither a king maker nor a king. And, the results have proved that.