Karnataka: Prajwal Revanna's outburst brings to fore bickering in Gowda family
Bengaluru: Prajwal Revanna's shocking revelation about suitcase culture in Janata Dal (Secular) could well be the political powder keg which was waiting to explode in the face of patriarch H D Deve Gowda and state unit president H D Kumaraswamy.
Interestingly, former minister H D Revanna’s son has already fortified his position in his home district, Hassan, where no JD(S) leader uttered a word against him despite his making such a controversial remarks about the party, but his outburst has brought to light bickering within Mr Gowda's family. Though Mr Gowda first threatened to initiate disciplinary action against his grandson and later climbed down saying he had asked the youngster to apologise to his uncle, Mr Kumaraswamy himself spoke well about his “sweet nephew.”
Both Mr Gowda and Mr Kumaraswamy have evidently decided to adopt a soft stand against the youngster as any disciplinary action would aggravate the situation within the family and affect the morale of party workers in the run-up to next year's elections to the Legislative Assembly.
Sources in Dal (S) said though only four out of two sons of Mr Gowda are in active politics, the entire family jointly takes decisions with none from outside allowed to join this coterie.
Differences, however, have been simmering ever since Mrs Bhavani Revanna’s plea to contest elections to the Legislative Assembly from either Belur or Arakalgud in Hassan district, K R Pet in Mandya district or Ramanagara was turned down in 2008 as Mr Gowda said the entire family could not contest and thus attract flak. During next by-elections, however, Mrs Anitha Kumaraswamy was given a ticket to contest from Madhugiri. Later, she moved to Channapatna, and then Bengaluru (Rural) Lok Sabha constituency. She lost in both these constituencies.
This infuriated Mrs Bhavani who had questioned the basis on which Mrs Anitha was given a ticket. Subsequently, Mrs Bhavani managed to get ZP ticket and won hands down. Meanwhile, Mr Prajwal Revanna tended to his grandfather's Lok Sabha constituency as well as Belur Assembly constituency, but was told that he would not get the Belur ticket. Simultaneously, in Mysuru district, JD(S) was witnessing rivalry between K R Nagar MLA Sa Ra Mahesh and Chamundeshwari MLA Mr G T Deve Gowda with the latter's son joining the list of ticket aspirants for Hunsur. Mr Sa Ra Mahesh lured Mr Prajwal Revanna to Hunsur to counter Mr G T Deve Gowda. When Mr A H Vishwanath rebelled against Congress leaders, Mr Sa Ra Mahesh found him more useful than Mr Prajwal Revanna and lured him into the party fold.
This infuriated Mr Prajwal Revanna, who started realising that he would not contest next Assembly elections too. Mr Deve Gowda tried pacifying him with an assurance of fielding him from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency in 2019.
Sources said internal bickering reached the boiling point when Mrs Anitha Kumaraswamy declared in Channapatna that she would return to the constituency to contest in 2018 elections.
Her announcement irked Mr Prajwal Revanna as he felt that his parents were being used by the party just to slog, while his grand father was promoting Mr Kumaraswamy's family.
