NEW DELHI, July 5: Foemer prime minister H D Deve Gowda might be delighted to find Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav in a sorry plight but he has a lot to be concerned about his own support base in Karnataka where a sizeable section of the Janata Dal has turned against him.

The crisis in the Janata Dal has clearly exposed Gowda's fast-losing grip on the party in Karnataka, even if pro-Laloo Yadav MPs from the State chose to keep away from the convention where the split was formalised today.

Nearly one-fourth of the national council members from the State boycotted the polling for party president held on Thursday and many others, including a handful of ministers in the J H Patel government, voted at the last minute under threat from the CM.

Of the 15 Lok Sabha members from Karnataka, at least six including Union Textiles Minister R L Jalappa, are Laloo Yadav's sympathisers. Human Resource Development Minister S R Bommai, a Rajya Sabha member, has also fallen out with Gowda.

It is not that this section of the party has any great love for Laloo. It is a mixture of their antipathy to Gowda who they describe as some kind of a ``feudal overlord,'' gratitude towards Laloo and naked opportunism that has made them go over to the rival camp.Jalappa has seldom enjoyed a great equation with Gowda. Bommai has fallen out with him for his autocratic ways.

It was Laloo who got a Lok Sabha ticket for this former IPS officer when Gowda tried to scuttle it. For MPs like Qamarul Islam who incidentally was brought to the Dal by Gowda's Man Friday, C M Ibrahim, just before the 1996 general polls, it is a case of the lure of ministerial office. And there is at least one MP whose loyalties lie with Ramakrishna Hegde who has vowed to get back at Gowda.

There are quite a few heavyweights at the State level who have turned against Gowda. Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, not long ago was Gowda's blue-eyed boy. Transport Minister P G R Sindhia is the other one. They are recent additions to the anti-Gowda faction comprising mostly of Hegde acolytes.