Hassan: Seemingly sure of his chances, former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, has left it to his family and party leaders to campaign in Hassan where he is contesting, while he tours other parliamentary constituences to take stock of the situation.
Its his son and MLA, H D Revanna, daughter-in-law Bhavani and grandson Prajwal who are mainly doing the rounds in Hassan. Mr. Revanna begins early in the morning and visits a string of villages and meets party leaders late into the night.
His wife, Bhavani concentrates on women voters, holding meetings with them in various parts of the constituency. Thursday saw her do a door-to-door campaign in Hassan city and also hold road shows. Prajwal, the young face of the JDS, is working hard on drawing the youth to the party.
“Voters tell me why are you working so hard, we all will vote for Deve Gowda. I am aware that he will win but I want his victory margin to be even more than it was the previous election,” says an enthusiastic Bhavani.
“We have asked Deve Gowda to take care of other seats and not to worry about canvassing in Hassan as we will look after things here on his behalf. He is a familiar face among voters and does not need to engage in hectic campaigning here,” says a party leader.
The JDS supremo has back- to- back wins in 2004 and 2009 to his credit from Hassan, but he was defeated in 1999 by Mr G Puttaswamy Gowda of the Congress in the constituency.
Claiming that his popularity is undiminished and he faces no threat in Hassan these elections, a party leader recalls, “We had expected around 25 seats in the last Zilla Panchayat election, but the JDS tally rose to 33 after Deve Gowda toured the district days before canvassing came to an end.”
