A late night meeting by Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) supremo HD Deve Gowda with members of his feuding family in Bengaluru on Sunday, April 4, did not yield any results as the stalemate over Bhavani’s candidature in Hassan Assembly constituency continued. With Gowda’s older son, HD Revanna refusing to back down from the demand that his wife Bhavani should contest from Hassan, the regional party is a divided house going into the elections. After failing to convince his son and daughter-in-law to fall in line, Deve Gowda left for Delhi to attend the Parliament budget session and is expected to return on Wednesday.
Deve Gowda has lately stayed away from active participation in party meetings and decision making due to health concerns and his intervention came at a time when the issue has been festering and possibly delaying the release of the party’s second list. The second list which was supposed to be released on April 3 is now likely to be delayed by two to three days. Senior party sources said the issue of Bhavani contesting would likely be sorted out by Deve Gowda by the end of the week and his word was final.
Sources in JD(S) pointed out that Revanna’s family is standing firm behind Bhavani contesting against BJP’s sitting MLA Preetam J Gowda as the latter has on several occasions lashed out at Bhavani. While she had sought a ticket to contest from Hassan in the earlier Assembly elections as well, the family has been adamant this time around to give what they consider as a fitting reply to Preetam Gowda. The family is also reportedly upset that BJP is taking credit for a lot of developmental works that have taken place in Hassan district, which was started by the Gowda family.
Bhavani’s candidature is being severely opposed by former CM HD Kumaraswamy who is in favour of giving the ticket to HP Swaroop, son of former MLA HS Prakash. Bhavani’s supporters have openly threatened not to work for a win if any other candidate is chosen for the constituency. On the other hand, Kumaraswamy is keen to avoid being an easy target of the BJP and Congress for dynastic politics. Recently, his wife Anita Kumaraswamy announced that she was giving her Ramangara seat in favour of their son Nikhil. Revanna’s son Suraj is an MLC from Hassan district, while the other son Prajwal is a Lok Sabha MP from Hassan district. Kumaraswamy is also reportedly concerned about Hassan becoming an alternate power centre as Revanna’s entire family occupy positions of power in the district.