scorecardresearch
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomeElectionsKarnataka Assembly ElectionsGowda scoreboard: Nikhil Kumaraswamy loses in grandpa Deve Gowda's turf, dad &...

Gowda scoreboard: Nikhil Kumaraswamy loses in grandpa Deve Gowda’s turf, dad & uncle win their constituencies

Nikhil lost to the Congress's H.A. Iqbal Hussain by 10,715 votes.. His previous poll outing — in 2019 Lok Sabha elections — had ended in defeat as well.

Follow Us :
Text Size:

New Delhi: Nikhil Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular) lost the electoral battle from Ramanagaram, while his father, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, and uncle H.D. Revanna won in their respective seats, Channapatana and Holenarasipur, respectively.

According to Election Commission dats, Nikhil lost to H.A. Iqbal Hussain of the Congress by 10,715 votes.

Nikhil, the grandson of former PM and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, is the eighth member of the family to enter electoral politics. His previous outing — in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections — had ended in defeat as well.

Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy — who was leading the Congress-JD(S) government when it fell in 2019 — won by 15,915 votes over his closest rival, C.P. Yogeshwara of the BJP

Revanna defeated Shreyas M. Patel of the Congress by a margin of 3,152 votes.


Also Read: Twist in ‘Bajrang Dal ban’ row: Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar were ‘unaware’ of Congress manifesto promise


The Deve Gowda family

In 1996 — two years after he was elected chief minister of Karnataka — Deve Gowda became Prime Minister. 

Kumarswamy has served as chief minister of Karnataka twice — first with BJP support, between 2006 and 2007, and then between 2018 and 2019, in alliance with the Congress. His brother Revanna served as public works minister in the Kumaraswamy government between 2018 and 2019

While Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha was an MLA in the previous assembly, Revanna’s wife Bhavani is a former zilla parishad member and their two sons, Prajwal and Suraj, are in politics as well. Prajwal is a Lok Sabha MP (Hassan) while Suraj is a Member of Legislative Council (Hassan).

Given the number of family members in electoral politics, the JD(S) has often been at the receiving end of the BJP’s campaign against “dynastic politics”, with the party often being called appa-makkalu (father-children)” party. 

Responding to this through a tweet in July last year, Kumaraswamy said: “I am aware that ‘BJP is a chainlink of family politics’. Should I expose the nationwide family politics in the BJP? One can write ‘Parivarakoti’ while talking about family politics in the states ruled by you.”

Nikhil & Ramanagaram

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Nikhil lost from Mandya — the seat of agricultural politics in the state — to Independent Sumalatha Ambareesh. 

This time, however, the party decided to field him from a safer seat

Ramanagaram (or Ramanagara) is considered a family bastion. It was this assembly seat that gave Deve Gowda a new lease of life in the 1994 assembly polls after he lost in 1989 from stronghold Holenarasipur. He then went on to become CM. 

Since 1999, Ramanagaram has remained with the JD(S) — mainly the Gowda family.

Kumaraswamy has been elected from the seat thrice — in 2004, 2008, and 2013. In 2018, the constituency elected Anitha in a byelection, by a margin of 1 lakh votes. The bypoll was held because Kumaraswamy had contested and won from two seats, and chose to retain Channapatna. 

Former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy

In 2018, Kumaraswamy won Channapatna by a margin of 21,530 votes. His closest rival this time is former Channapatna MLA C.P. Yogeshwara, who has won the seat four times, and this was considered a high-stakes battle. Both candidates belong to the Vokkaliga community. 

The third candidate, Congress’s Gangadhar. S, was a distant third as of 2.50pm, with just over 5,700 votes, against Kumaraswamy’s 40,855 and Yogeshwara’s 32,419.

H.D. Revanna wins again

H.D. Revanna, Deve Gowda’s other son, is leading in family stronghold Holenarasipur in Hassan district for the sixth time 

Except for 1989 and 1999, the family has won the seat continuously since 1962 — first under Deve Gowda and then under Revanna.  

As of 2.50pm, Congress candidate Shreyas M. Patel had 83,747 votes, while the BJP’s Devaraje Gowda had 4,666 votes, against Revanna’s 86,401. 

Hassan is considered the Gowda family’s bastion. The eponymous Lok Sabha seat, which Deve Gowda represented in 1991, 1998 and then for 15 years from 2004 and 2019, is currently held by his grandson Prajwal Revanna. 

In January, H.D. Revanna’s wife Bhavani had announced her intention to contest the assembly polls from Hassan, but Kumaraswamy scuttled the plans. Instead, party patriarch Deve Gowda decided to field H.P. Swaroop. While announcing Swaroop’s candidature, Revanna said at a press briefing: “Health of Mr Gowda is most important to us. Ms Bhavani felt it strongly and she expressed her desire to give up the seat. Nobody can bring rift between the brothers”.

Swaroop is leading in the Hassan assembly seat with 84,005 votes, with his closest rival, Preetham J. Gowda of the BJP, at 75,110 votes.

This is an updated version of the report

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)


Also Read: While BJP & Congress clash over Bajrang Dal, all Bengaluru voters really want is employment, loans


 

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular