Bengaluru, June 1 :Mr H D Deve Gowda created a history on this day 25 years ago by swearing in as the Prime Minister of India, which he never dreamt at all.

He was Karnataka Chief Minister when he was selected to be 11th Prime Minister of the country on June 1-1996. He took the leadership of 13-party United Front, which was supported by the Congress from outside.

Congress losing decisively in the 1996 Lok Sabha election, and fall of the 13-day government led by BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee, preceded his entry into the national political scene.

He was the first Prime Minister from Karnataka and second from South India after P V Narasimha Rao.

Gowda, who has called himself an ‘Accidental Prime Minister’ on several occasions in the past, has stated that it was leftist stalwart Jyoti Basu’s chance to become Prime Minister that surprisingly landed in his lap, and it was the former West Bengal Chief Minister himself who proposed his name.

Gowda was the Prime Minister for less than a year (324 days) until April 21, 1997, as had to demit office, with Congress withdrawing support.

It is said that Gowda’s differences with Sitaram Kesri, who became Congress President after Narasimha Rao, cost him the post, following which Inder Kumar Gujral was chosen as leader of the United Front and he became the Prime Minister.(UNI)