New Delhi: Sorab in Shimoga district and Holenarasipur in Hassan district have a special place in the history of Karnataka elections as they have remained with two political families for half a century, barring exceptions.
Sorab has been with the Bangarappa family since 1967, when former chief minister S. Bangarappa — the father of sitting BJP MLA Kumar Bangarappa — won it for the first time. The family has won the seat in 12 out of 13 assembly elections since 1967, barring once, in 2008.
JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda and his family have been winning Holenarasipur since 1962, barring two elections in 1989 and 1999.
In this election, Bangarappa’s two sons — Kumar and Madhu — were pitted against one another. While Kumar was the BJP candidate, his younger brother Madhu was the Congress candidate. Madhu won the seat with 98,912 votes. Kumar was a distant second, with 54,650 votes.
In Holenarasipur, Deve Gowda’s son and sitting MLA H.D. Revanna of the JD(S) won with 88,103 votes. His nearest rival, Shreyas M. Patel of the Congress, got 84,951 votes.
Bangarappas’ hold on Sorab
What’s interesting about the Bangarappas’ grip on Sorab is the fact that the family has been winning it on tickets of different parties.
Bangarappa himself won the seat seven consecutive times from 1967 to 1994. Apart from three stints with the Congress, the former chief minister won once each with the Sanghata Socialist Party, the Samyukta Socialist Party, the Janata Party, and the Karnataka Congress Party.
After he went to the Lok Sabha from Shimoga in 1996, his son Kumar Bangarappa was elected from the seat for the first time on a Karnataka Congress Party ticket. He won the next two elections on a Congress ticket. In 2008, the family lost hold of the constituency once as the BJP won. In 2013, Madhu Bangarappa won the seat on a JD(S) ticket, pushing his brother Kumar to the third position. In 2018, Kumar won the seat on a BJP ticket.
“I think people’s attachment and connection with S. Bangarappa is still there. It may not be in the same proportion, but it still continues,” political analyst Chambi Puranik told ThePrint.
“His family members can exploit and they demand votes in his name. People also vote for the same family. Bangarappa was a truly secular person, loved by all communities,” he added.
Gowda bastion Holenarasipur
When it comes to Holenarasipur, the Deve Gowda family has held the seat since 1962, when Deve Gowda won it for the first time. He was elected from the seat six consecutive times till 1989, when G. Puttaswamy Gowda of the Congress defeated him by 7,800 votes.
In 1994, Deve Gowda vacated the seat for his son and current MLA H.D. Revanna and the former went on to win from Ramanagaram. Since then, Revanna has held the seat consecutively except for once when he lost the seat to A. Doddegowda of the Congress in 1999.
A win this time will be the sixth consecutive win for the elder son of JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda. The 89-year-old former prime minister had arrived in a helicopter to cast vote at Holenarasipur.
In the run-up to this election, Revanna’s wife Bhavani wanted to contest from Hassan even as her brother-in-law H.D. Kumaraswamy insisted that she would not be the JD(S) candidate. Later, the family head had to step in to resolve the issue, and Bhavani stepped back.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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