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Five former CMs, one an ex-PM

Bageshree S.

All of them running for election is a record of sorts

The Lok Sabha election in Karnataka this time has five former chief ministers in the fray, one of whom has also been the prime minister of the country. In fact, barring S.M. Krishna, all of them are running for Lok Sabha elections this time, perhaps a record of sorts for any State.

S. Bangarappa, born in October 1932, is the senior-most among them, while 1959-born H.D. Kumaraswamy is the youngest. Mr. Bangarappa has won the Shimoga seat on the tickets of three parties: Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party. This time he takes on Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y.Raghavendra at Shimoga.

JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, who is busy building the Third Front and is contesting from his home district Hassan, has been chief minister as well as prime minister. He headed the State between December 1994 and June 1996 when he quit the post to take up the country’s highest political post.

N. Dharam Singh, a former Chief Minister is contesting from Bidar, while M. Veerappa Moily (another ex-CM) is contesting from Chikaballapur. H.D. Kumaraswamy is contesting from the Bangalore Rural constituency.

Though the name of Mr. Krishna, senior to Bangarappa by a few months, was doing the rounds for the Bangalore South, the Congress high command finally chose young Krishna Byre Gowda for this constituency.

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