All about the family for many former CMs

Dinesh Gundu Rao, 38, son of R Gundu Rao, CM between 1980 and 1983, has been renominated to contest from Gandhinagar constituency in Bangalore. The former Youth Congress leader won the seat on his debut in 2004.

Kumar Bangarappa, 45, son of S Bangarappa, CM in the early 1990s, is looking to defend Sorab constituency he has won since 1999, on a Congress ticket. Like in the 2004 polls, Kumar Bangarappa, an actor-turned-politician, will fight his brother Madhu Bangarappa, 42, who is contesting on the ticket of his father’s current party — the SP.

The Bangarappa family plunged into a feud ahead of the 2004 polls when the patriarch of the family wanted his younger son to contest on a BJP ticket. The elder son also stayed in the fray on a Congress ticket and managed to retain the seat.

For the coming polls, one of Bangarappa’s pre-conditions to an alliance with the Congress was a ticket for his younger son from their family borough of Sorab.

With the alliance not coming through, the brothers will battle each other once again while Bangarappa himself is set to take on former BJP chief minister B S Yeddyurappa from the neighbouring Shikharipur constituency.

Former Janata Party CM Ramakrishna Hegde’s daughter Mamta Hegde Nichani, 48, is also in the fray for the May elections on a Congress ticket. She will take on former Janata Dal Secular CM HD Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister and Chief Minister H D Deve Gowda.

Deve Gowda’s older son H D Revanna, 51, is taking on S G Anupama, the daughter-in-law of a former Congress legislator and Deve Gowda baiter G Puttaswamy Gowda, from their family borough of Holenarasipura.

Former Janata Dal Chief Minister JH Patel’s son Mahima Patel, who was until recently with the Janata Dal Secular, is contesting the current polls on his own party Suvarna Yuga’s ticketfrom his family’s Channagiri constituency.

Another former Janata Dal Chief Minister S R Bommai’s son Basavaraj Bommai, a JDU MLC until recently, is contesting the polls on a BJP ticket from the Shiggaon constituency.

Apart from the immediate progeny of former CMs, the friends and family of several living and dead political leaders have been nominated for the coming elections.