Curse of the Kunchatigas did H D Deve Gowda in?

Bengaluru: When poll battles are lost and the favoured candidate bites the dust, umpteen explanations are offered by all from analysts to astrologers to soothe the frayed nerves of those shattered by the verdict and trying to find out what went wrong.

So was it a wrong configuration of the stars which did in someone considered invincible like JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda in an impregnable bastion of the JD(S)-Congress coalition like Tumakuru? Some may say so but the indefatigable former Congress MLA from Madhugiri K.N. Rajanna has another reason to present, however strange it may seem.  According to Mr Rajanna, months ago, Deve Gowda's grandson Nikhil, who too lost in another JD(S) citadel, Mandya, was to get engaged to a girl belonging to the dominant Kunchatiga community. But then for some inexplicable reason, the engagement was called off leaving the Kunchatigas heart-broken.

After all, they were to get the son of  CM H.D. Kumaraswamy himself as their damaad.

In an interview he gave to a vernacular TV channel, Mr Rajanna claimed that along with other factors like the non-release of Hemavathi water to Tumakuru, the 'curse' of voters belonging to the Kunchatigas, a subsect of the Vokkaliga community, could also have been one of reasons for Deve Gowda's loss.

Mr Rajanna had actually entered the Tumakuru fray as a rebel Congress candidate alongwith the sitting Congress MP Muddahanumegowda after Deve Gowda was given the seat but later withdrew following pressure from senior Congress leaders.