Deve Gowda to take RS oath on Sunday

Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda will take oath on September 20 as the newly-elected Rajya Sabha member. Gowda enters Rajya Sabha for the second time 24 years after he was elected when he was the prime minister from June 1996 to April 1997.

Bengaluru: Former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda would take oath as the newly-elected Rajya Sabha member on September 20, a party official said on Thursday.

"As the Rajya Sabha is working on Sunday too, Gowda has decided to take oath as a member on that day when the session begins at 9:00am and address the Upper House," party spokesman A.G. Anjanigowda said.

Gowda, 87, was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from the southern state with the support of the opposition Congress on June 12 in the biennial elections held here for 4 seats that fell vacant after the previous members' terms ended on June 25.

Though 45 of the 61 new members took oath on July 22 in Parliament House, Gowda could not go to New Delhi then, as he was unwell and due to Covid-induced restrictions on travelling for senior citizens amid the pandemic.

"On his doctor's advice, Gowda skipped oath-taking in July and decided to do it in the monsoon session of the House so that he could attend the session too. He will reach Delhi on Saturday along with his wife Chennamma," said Anjanigowda.

Gowda enters Rajya Sabha for the second time 24 years after he was elected when he was the prime minister from June 1996 to April 1997.

As Gowda's regional party (JD-S) has only 34 legislators in the 225-member state assembly and fell 10 short-off the required 44 votes to win the seat, the Congress lent its surplus votes to him after electing its leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

Gowda and Kharge lost in the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Tumkur and Gulbarga (reserved) seats in the state to the BJP candidates.

Though Gowda represented the Hassan Lok Sabha seat for three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2019, he shifted to Tumkur to enable his grandson Prajwal Revanna contest and win in the May 19 general elections.

Prajwal is the son of Gowda's second son and former minister H.D. Revanna.

Gowda's other grandson Nikhil, son of former state chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, however, lost in the May 2019 elections to Independent Sumalatha Ambarish from Mandya, about 100km southwest of Bengaluru.

IANS report