Has family-centric politics come back to bite JDS?

Revanna has offered a solution to end the stalemate by proposing his candidature from two seats – Hassan and Holenarasipura, similar to what Kumaraswamy had done last time.

The families of former Chief Minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy and his younger brother H.D. Revanna are at loggerheads once again. This time, it is over a JDS ticket to Revanna's wife Bhavani, a former Zilla Panchayat member. Upping the ante at a party workers recently, Bhavani publicly declared that she would be contesting for the 2023 Karnataka Assembly election from Hassan constituency and a formal announcement in this regard will be made soon.

Kumaraswamy quickly tried to discourage Bhavani from contesting, saying that the party had already identified a candidate for Hassan. However, Revanna's two sons - Prajwal and Suraj - who have entered Parliament and Legislative Council, respectively, rallied behind their mother.

But Kumaraswamy, who is dreaming of a third term as Chief Minister, possibly feels embarrassed as he does not want to face more public criticism over the bulging dynastic representation in the party. It must be noted that six members of the family are already in active politics - Deve Gowda (now a Rajya Sabha member), Revanna, Kumaraswamy & his wife Anitha (both MLAs), Prajwal (a Lok Sabha MP) and Suraj (an MLC).

But, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when Kumaraswamy, then Chief Minister for a 2nd time, and wife Anitha insisted on fielding their son Nikhil from Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, the Revanna family was livid. Revanna's family began to complain that Deve Gowda was being 'partial' towards Kumaraswamy as he felt that they were excessively greedy while his sons' political future was being 'neglected'.

In order to make peace, HD Deve Gowda decided to 'sacrifice' his Hassan seat for Revanna's elder son Prajwal, and moved to Tumakuru. That decision proved to be disastrous as he was defeated by the BJP's GS Basavaraj by a narrow margin of 13,339 votes. While both Deve Gowda and Nikhil Kumaraswamy were defeated, Prajwal became the lone JD(S) Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka.

Hassan seat the bone of contention

There is a fierce competition between ticket aspirants H.P. Swaroop and Bhavani Revanna for the JDS ticket from Hassan Assembly segment. Swaroop is the son of former JDS legislator late H.S. Prakash who has won four times from Hassan constituency. Kumaraswamy has publicly backed Swaroop and has already on multiple occasions clarified that he will be the party candidate from Hassan this time too.

On other hand, Revanna's family is keen to field Bhavani from Hassan to show their power as BJP's sitting MLA J. Preetam Gowda challenged the family that he would win by a margin of at least 50,000 votes if she contests from Hassan. Hence, for both the families of Kumaraswamy and Revanna, the Hassan constituency ticket has become a question of prestige.

Hassan is the home district of Deve Gowda. In the 2018 polls, the party had won in six out of seven segments. However, it lost the Hassan seat to BJP's Preetham Gowda, making it the first ever win for the saffron party in the Vokkaliga-dominated district.

However, to avoid humiliation, Revanna has now offered a solution to end the stalemate by proposing his candidature from two seats - Hassan and Holenarasipura, similar to what Kumaraswamy had done in the 2018 Assembly elections. Kumaraswamy had contested and won from both Ramanagara and Channapatna constituencies. After the polls, he quit Ramanagara seat, but his wife Anitha contested the bypoll and won back the Ramanagara seat for the family.

On the similar lines, Revanna is reportedly planning to field his wife from Holenarasipura bypoll as this would ease the pressure on the party and the constituency is the JDS' bastion. Meanwhile, a decision on the Hassan ticket is likely to be finalised in the presence of the family patriarch Deve Gowda this week or early next week.