H. D. Deve Gowda
Former Prime Minister of India
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Born in a family of farmers, Deve Gowda joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1953 and remained a member until 1962. He became president of the state unit of the Janata Dal in 1994 and was considered to be a driving force in the party's victory in Karnataka. He served as the chief minister of Karnataka from 1994 to 1996. In the 1996 general elections, no party won enough seats to form a government and Deve Gowda was elected to serve as prime minister as head of the United Front coalition. His premiership lasted for less than a year and he left office in April 1997. After his prime ministerial tenure, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament until his defeats in 1999 and 2019. Deve Gowda was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020.
Following the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2024, Gowda became the only living former Prime Minister of India and held several meetings individually with PM Narendra Modi.
Early life and career
H. D. Deve Gowda was born on 18 May 1933 in Haradanahalli, a village in Holenarasipura Taluk, of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore (now in Hassan, Karnataka). His father Dodde Gowda was a paddy farmer and his mother, Devamma was a home maker. He is from the dominant Vokkaliga community who consider him as their community leader.
Deve Gowda earned a diploma in civil engineering from L. V. Polytechnic, Hassan, in the early 1950s.
Deve Gowda joined the Indian National Congress party in 1953 and remained a member until 1962. During that period, he was President of Anjaneya Cooperative Society of Holenarasipura and later became a member of the Taluk Development Board of Holenarasipura.
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State politics (1962–1996)
In 1962, Deve Gowda was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Holenarasipura constituency as an independent candidate. Later, he was elected from the same constituency to the Assembly for six consecutive terms from 1962 to 1989. He joined the Congress (O) during the Congress split. He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly from March 1972 to March 1976 and from November 1976 to December 1977. During the Emergency in the 1970s, he was imprisoned in the Bangalore Central Jail.
Later, Deve Gowda served as the two-time president of the state unit of the Janata Party. He served as a minister in the Janata Party Government in Karnataka headed by Ramakrishna Hegde from 1983 to 1988. When V.P. Singh joined Janata Dal, Subramanian Swamy formed Janata Party (Jaya Prakash) faction, and Deve Gowda joined him to become Janata Party (JP)'s Karnataka President. He was later defeated from Holenarasipur in 1989, and soon later rejoined Janata Dal. He became president of the state unit of the Janata Dal in 1994 and led the party to victory in the 1994 State Assembly elections. He was elected from the Ramanagara, and sworn in as the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka in December.
As chief minister, Gowda toured Switzerland and attended the Forum of International Economists. His tour to Singapore brought in foreign investment to the State. He resigned from the position to serve as prime minister following his appointment in 1996.
Premiership (1996–1997)
Following the 1996 general elections, P. V. Narasimha Rao government was defeated with no other party winning enough seats to form a government.
When the United Front (a conglomeration of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties) decided to form the Government at the centre with the support of the Congress and CPI(M), Deve Gowda was unexpectedly chosen to head the government after V. P. Singh and Jyoti Basu declined. He was sworn in as the 11th Prime Minister of India in June 1996 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in September 1996 during his tenure as prime minister after Indira Gandhi's tenure in Rajya Sabha. During his tenure, he served as the Home Minister and as the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the United Front, the policy-making committee consisting of other coalition party leaders. He is credited with providing financial closure and kickstarting development of the Delhi Metro Project. He left office on 21 April 1997 after the Congress revoked its support for Gowda amidst discontent over communication between the coalition and the Congress. It compromised to support a new government under I. K. Gujral, who served as the prime minister from 21 April 1997 to 19 March 1998.
Post-premiership (1997–present)
He was defeated in the 1999 general elections by Congress's G. Putta Swamy Gowda in Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. He was elected the president of the Janata Dal (Secular) the same year. Subsequently, he won Kanakapura Lok Sabha by-poll in 2002 against D. K. Shivakumar.
The 2004 Karnataka state elections witnessed the revival of his party's fortunes under the leadership of Siddaramaiah with the Janata Dal (Secular) winning 58 seats and becoming a part of the ruling coalition with Congress. In 2006, 39 JD(S) MLAs pulled support from Congress-JD(S) coalition government and formed a new coalition government with BJP, against Deve Gowda's wishes. His son H. D. Kumaraswamy led the formation of this government and served as the chief minister of the state for 20 months.
Deve Gowda expelled Siddaramaiah from the JD(S) in 2005. Later, Siddaramaiah joined the Indian National Congress, which won the 2013 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election, with Siddaramaiah being elected as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. In 2018, Gowda played vital role with Sonia Gandhi to form INC-JDS combine rule.
Deve Gowda contested the 2019 general elections against G. S. Basavaraj in Tumkur Lok Sabha constituency of Karnataka. G. S. Basavaraj, BJP candidate of Tumkur Constituency won against Deve Gowda by a margin of 13,339 votes. G. S. Basavaraj polled 596,127 votes while Deve Gowda got 582,788 votes. He was elected to Rajya Sabha again in 2020.
Personal life
He married Chennamma in 1954 and spent 72 years together until her death on 18 July 2026. They had six children together: four sons, including politicians H. D. Revanna who is PWD minister and H. D. Kumaraswamy, who is a former Chief Minister of Karnataka and current Union Minister, and two daughters. He is the father-in-law of politicians Anitha Kumaraswamy and C. N. Manjunath, and grandfather of actor-turned-politician Nikhil Kumaraswamy, politician Suraj Revanna, and former politician and convicted rapist Prajwal Revanna.
Gowda is a vegetarian. In 2024, he commented that "I was against cruelty towards animals and hence turned vegetarian more than 50 years ago. I’m diabetic and suffer from hypertension, so I want what I eat and keep it simple".
In 2025, Gowda was hospitalised in Bengaluru after he developed urinary tract infection.