Bengaluru(PTI): Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who turned 92 on Sunday, said he would continue to work as a party worker. The JD(S) patriarch celebrated his birthday in his party office.
"If you ask me what next, then I will tell you that I have a habit of not sitting idly in one place. I will toil as a worker for the party. I won’t say more than this," Gowda told reporters here.
The former PM, however, regretted not being able to go to Tirupati to offer his obeisance on his birthday.
"I had a habit of going to Tirupati on my birthday but due to knee pain I am not able to go there anymore," Gowda said.
He also thanked everyone who wished him on his birthday.
The JD(S) supremo declined to give any political statement, saying that this was not the day for it.
Gowda was born on May 18, 1933 in his ancestral village Haradanahalli in Hassan district. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of India for 10 months from June 1, 1996 to April 21, 1997.
The JD(S) supremo was also the Chief Minister of Karnataka from December 11, 1994 to May 31, 1996.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined several leaders on Sunday in extending birthday greetings to Gowda.
In a social media post, Modi wrote, "Birthday wishes to our former Prime Minister Shri HD Deve Gowda Ji... May he be blessed with a long and healthy life."
The PM said Gowda is widely respected for his statesman like approach and passion towards public service.
His wisdom and insights on several issues are a source of great strength, he added.
In his message on 'X', Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, "Happy birthday to the country's senior politician and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. I pray to God to bestow upon him good health and long life."
Senior BJP leader B S Yediyurappa and his son B Y Vijayendra, who is BJP Karnataka unit president, also wished Gowda on his birthday.
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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).