GT Deve Gowda believes history will repeat itself on May 15. He goes back in time — 40 years to be precise — when he and a young Siddaramaiah found themselves in opposite camps during cooperative elections in Varuna in Mysuru district.

“My team defeated his team in 1978,” recalls Deve Gowda. After the initial rivalry, soon the two became friends and during Siddaramaiah’s years in different avatars of the Janata parivaar — from Janata Party to Janata Dal to Janata Dal (Secular) — Deve Gowda was his poll manager.

A photograph of his namesake, HD Deve Gowda, occupies pride of place on the wall in GT Deve Gowda’s living room at his residence in Mysuru. If there is one thing the two Gowdas have in common, it is bitterness for Siddaramaiah. And Chamundeshwari, GT Deve Gowda believes, is where Siddaramaiah will be taught a lesson.

“By running away to Badami, Siddaramaiah has shown he is not the brave and powerful person he claims he is. He is nervous about his chances in Chamundeshwari which is why he has chosen a second seat,” taunts Gowda.

There is a reason why there is a spring in Gowda’s feet. There is a caste consolidation that is taking place against Siddaramaiah because of the campaign against him building a perception that he is both anti-Vokkaliga and anti-Dalit. While JD(S) by virtue of being a Vokkaliga-dominated party is expected to mop up most of the 72,000-odd community votes in Chamundeshwari, it is looking to break Siddaramaiah’s AHINDA votebank (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) by wooing the Dalits.

In this endeavour, former Congress leaders like Srinivas Prasad who was unceremoniously dropped from the cabinet by Siddaramaiah, are lending a helping hand. The word being spread in Chamundeshwari constituency is about how Siddaramaiah kept G Parameshwara waiting for a cabinet berth for the first half of his term before finally making him Home minister. Parameshwara, a senior Dalit leader, aspired to be the deputy CM but had to be content being Pradesh Congress Committee chief.

Siddaramaiah got a taste of Dalit antipathy while touring his constituency last week when Dalit leader Mariswamy publicly refused to vote for the chief minister and said his support is to the JD(S). When a miffed CM asked him to go away, Mariswamy embarrassed him by reminding him that the CM had come to his village and if anyone had to leave, it was Siddaramaiah. The clip went viral and a day later, the JD(S) leadership felicitated Mariswamy for standing up to Siddaramaiah.

But what could make Deve Gowda a giant killer in Chamundeshwari is the understanding between the JD(S) and the BJP. The 66-year-old couches it in political language pointing out that people will vote for whoever has a better chance of defeating the Congress. In Chamundeshwari, Gowda believes the Bharatiya Janata Party supporters will vote for him as their party candidate is weak.

Members of Gowda’s strategy, however, are more forthcoming with the arrangement they have worked out with the BJP. They are confident that the vote transfer of BJP to Gowda will ensure Siddaramaiah’s defeat.

But even as the JD(S) and BJP work out a deal to get Siddaramaiah into trouble, the fact that he is chief minister can make all the difference to the voter’s psyche. I ask Mysuru-based Kannada author Preethi Nagaraj whether the temptation of Chamundeshwari’s electorate to see the CM as their MLA and the prestige of being called the CM’s constituency will see Siddaramaiah through.

“The local population may much rather have their MLA accessible to them in Mysuru. If they elect Siddaramaiah, they will have to go to Bengaluru everytime they have an issue. That could also work as a factor in Gowda’s favour,” says Nagaraj. The number of days Siddaramaiah has devoted to campaigning in Chamundeshwari is a pointer to a tight contest. Even though he has Badami as a safety net, Siddaramaiah would not like to lose in the constituency that gave him political life. Moreover, Mysuru is his home while he would still be seen as an “outsider” to Badami in Bagalkot.

How is it to be foe to Siddaramaiah who at one point in time was a dear friend, I ask Gowda.

“His animosity against me has grown over the years,” he says. “Inside the Assembly, he would throw jibes at me. But the turning point was when he restarted the probe in the Karnataka Housing Board scam. The case that was being investigated by the Lokayukta was transferred to the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Siddaramaiah’s intention is to get me and my son Harish Gowda arrested.”

The case pertains to the time when Gowda was Chairman of the Karnataka Housing Board in 2008. An FIR was filed against Harish after allegations that farmers near Mysuru were cheated on the pretext of buying land for a housing project. The case was handed over to the Anti Corruption Bureau in December 2017 when it was clear that Gowda will contest from Chamundeshwari and the JD(S) has been crying foul, calling it Siddaramaiah’s intimidation tactics to get Gowda to back off from the contest.

Are you on talking terms, I ask Gowda.

“It has been a year. Before the Nanjungud bypoll in April 2017, he had called me to tell me that I should support the Congress candidate. The JD(S) in any case, was not fighting that election. We have not spoken after that,” says Gowda.