india

Updated: May 31, 2019 18:17 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s decision to repose its faith in DV Sadananda Gowda, 66, came as a surprise to many political observers in Karnataka.

The former chief minister of Karnataka was shunted from ministry to ministry in the Narendra Modi government’s first term. Gowda was first elected to the Karnataka assembly in 1994 and re-elected in 1999.

In 2004, he successfully contested the Mangalore seat against senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily.

In 2009, Gowda, a Vokkaliga leader from the coastal region of the state, won the Lok Sabha election from the Udupi-Chickamagaluru seat. Two years later, he was made chief minister of Karnataka.

This stint as CM did not last long as Gowda had to step down just a year later. However, he was rewarded for his unwavering commitment to the BJP in 2014, after he won the Lok Sabha election again from Bangalore North, and handed the prized railways portfolio.

He was shifted out within six months and made minister for law. This, too, did not last long; he was shifted to the statistics ministry.