Dynasty Watch

In Karnataka, politics has become a family affair. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has two of his sons contesting in these elections...

In Karnataka, politics has become a family affair. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has two of his sons contesting in these elections. While Gowda himself is seeking re-election from the prestigious Hassan Lok Sabha constituency with his one-time poll manager and now arch rival former Karnataka Minister G Puttaswamy Gowda his main opponent, his son and former Karnataka Minister H D Revanna is seeking re-election from the Holenarasipur Assembly constituency in Hassan district.

Gowda’s other son, H D Kumaraswamy, who represented the Kanakapura Lok Sabha constituency from 1996-1998, is facing senior Congress member and former Union Minister M V Chandrashekara Murthy and BJP member in the dissolved Lok Sabha M Srinivas in the same constituency.

Interestingly, sons of three former chief ministers of Karnataka are in the fray. While Late R Gundu Rao’s son and State Youth Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao is contesting from the Gandhinagar Assembly seat in Bangalore, Late Veerendra Patil’s son KailasnathPatil has made his debut in the battle for the Chincholi Assembly seat.

Sitting MLA Kumara Bangarappa, son of former Chief Minister S Bangarappa, is seeking re-election from the Soraba Assembly constituency which his father represented six times. Kumara Bangarappa had won the Sorab seat which fell vacant after his father was elected from the Shimoga Lok Sabha constituency in 1996. Kumara Bangarappa, elected as a Karnataka Congress Party (KCP) candidate, became a Congress member following the merger of the KCP and the Congress.

Former Railway Minister C K Jaffer Sharief, seeking re-election from the Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency, has managed to get the Congress ticket for his son-in-law and chairman of the Pradesh Congress Minorities Cell Sayeed Yasin for the Raichur Assembly seat.

A member of the dissolved Lok Sabha and Congress state unit treasurer Shamanur Shivashankarappa is also seeking re-election from Davangere Lok Sabha constituency while his son, S Mallikarjuna, is contesting from theDavanagere Assembly seat.

Former MLA Vijay Kumar Khandre, son of senior Congress leader in Bidar district and former minister Bheemanna Khandre, is contesting from the Bhalki Assembly seat and Legislative Council Chairman D B Kalmankar’s son Mohan has made his debut by contesting on a Congress ticket in Gulbarga district.

Story continues below this ad

Meanwhile, former minister V L Patil’s son Amar Vasantharao Patil is the Congress nominee for the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat and former minister Shivananda Kaujalagi’s son, Mahantesh, is in the fray for the Belgaum Assembly seat.

The Congress has also nominated former Union minister B Shankaranand’s son, Pradeep Kanagali, for the Chikkodi Lok Sabha seat.