The kingmaker’s kin

The family of the now 76-year-old Gowda,hailing from Holenarasipur in the district of Hassan,southern Karnataka,remains an important part of every political calculation in the state,thanks to the machinations of the wily old fox himself. Though a Congressman through his twenties Gowda made his first entry into big time politics winning a seat in the Karnataka Assembly as an Independent candidate from Holenarasipur in 1962.

He became a key part of the Janata formation in the post-Emergency period and became a minister for the first time in the Janata Party government,headed by Ramakrishna Hegde in the early 1980s. In 1994,he became the chief minister of Karnataka for a Janata Dal government — a post he resigned from in 1996 when he was chosen to be the prime minister in a Third Front government — on the back of a strong performance for his party in the general elections.

In his single-minded pursuit of power in a political career interspersed with periods in the cold,Gowda has carved out a niche for not just himself but also set the path for a political future for other members of his family.

The first family member Gowda initiated into politics was his second son H D Revanna,considered closest to Gowda,when he fielded him in the 1994 Assembly polls in the Holenarasipur constituency in Hassan. Gowda himself moved to Ramanagaram near Bangalore for the polls.

Then in the parliamentary polls of 1996,he fielded his third son Kumaraswamy in Kanakapura constituency of which Ramanagaram was a part. It is widely believed that by fielding Kumaraswamy,a 37-year-old then,in Kanakapura constituency Gowda was cementing a second family borough in the rural Bangalore away from the original stronghold of Hassan.

Kumaraswamy,who was elected to Parliament in 1996 and was a first-hand witness to his father’s tenure as prime minister,however,lost his seat in polls held after the fall of the Third Front government.

In 2004,when the Janata Dal returned from a period in the cold to form a coalition government in Karnataka,both Kumaraswamy and his brother Revanna were members of the legislative Assembly.

While Revanna was a minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition that ruled till January 2006 Kumaraswamy became the chief minister when the JD(S) in a coup dropped the Congress and joined the BJP in a new coalition.

The face of the JD(S) has since his tenure as the chief minister become associated with Kumaraswamy as much as Deve Gowda. Though the party lost big in the Assembly polls last year,three of the 28 members elected from the JD(S) to the Assembly are Gowda family members — Kumaraswamy,his wife Anitha and brother Revanna. There has also been speculation that Revanna’s wife Bhavani will also be initiated into electoral politics soon.

For the forthcoming parliamentary elections,the family has fielded Gowda from Hassan and Kumaraswamy from the Bangalore Rural constituency. While filing his nomination in rural Bangalore this week,Kumaraswamy told voters that his party could bargain for “plum posts” only if people supported the JD(S).