Janata Dal Party at war: End of the dynasty?

Bengaluru: Party supremo,  H D Deve Gowda shifting his base to Hassan was the first surprise. Then came former Chief Minister,  H D Kumaraswamy's emotional outburst in a letter. Both events have left leaders and workers of the Janata Dal (S), a party already at the crossroads, confused and looking forward desperately to the outcome of the party meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Mr Gowda's decision to move to Hassan and Mr Kumaraswamy's letter have also set off  speculation that all is not well in the first family of the party.   It is no secret that there has been a power struggle in the Gowda family. Although Mr H D Revanna has been in active politics for longer than Mr Kumaraswamy, the latter pipped him to the Chief Minister’s gaddi.  Also, while Mr Revanna's wife, Bhavani was not allowed to enter electoral politics, Mrs Anitha Kumaraswamy has been given multiple opportunities to contest elections. And now it is the turn of the sons,  Nikhil Kumaraswamy and  Prajwal Revanna to  battle for the next generation of leadership  in the party.

According to sources  Mr Gowda decided to shift his base to Hassan as he was tired of balancing the multiple political aspirants  within the family. While  this set of alarm bells in the party, the tone of the lengthy letter written by Mr Kumaraswamy in which he has offered to rectify mistakes , if any,  on his part  and accept a parallel leadership if required, raised many eyebrows. Unsure of what it all means workers are hoping  Wednesday’s meeting will provide some clarity. Meanwhile, reports of a few prominent leaders quitting the party have also disheartened many. The fact that two prominent leaders,  MLA Cheluvarayaswamy and  former MLC M C Nanaiah denied  quitting the party to the media did not go down well with the Gowda family as only its members were accustomed to making such clarifications in the past.