Karnataka elections: Can Yediyurappa achieve for son Vijayendra what Deve Gowda could for Kumaraswamy?

Families with vested stakes in politics are aplenty in Karnataka. In this election, BS Yediyurappa’s attempts to pitchfork his son BY Vijayendra into BJP’s leadership is being keenly watched.

There is no state in India which does not boast of political families – a phenomenon where there is more than one person in the family playing an active role in politics alongside getting themselves elected as people’s representatives. This can be seen in any political party, be it national or regional.

Karnataka is no stranger to “dynasty” politics. In a way, the role  of dynasties in the state’s politics  increased from the 1990s which also goes to show that politicians during the first few decades after Independence rarely promoted their family members in the state – of course, there were a few exceptions.

If one takes a look at the list of chief ministers that Karnataka has had, one can come across a number of them promoting the growth of their sons in the political field. Almost all these CMs were first-generation politicians, but that didn’t come in the way of them promoting their families and making them take active roles in state or national politics.

So let us take a look at that list as well as other “dynasts” in Karnataka, who will face polls shortly:

The Yediyurappa Family

Along with HD Deve Gowda, BS Yediyurappa (BSY) is the most powerful patriarch of a political family in Karnataka. BSY was chief minister four times, MP once, and MLA and MLC several times. He has promoted his two sons: BY Raghavendra is a two-time MP from Shivamogga; and the ambitious BY Vijayendra, whom the 80-year-old former CM wants to project as not only his political successor but also the next leader of the powerful Lingayat community.

BSY is the undisputed leader of the community and has declared that he won’t contest again and wants Vijayendra to be fielded from Shikaripura in Shivamogga, from where he has won eight times. Buoyed by the pat from Home Minister Amit Shah when the latter had breakfast at BSY’s house in Bengaluru recently, Vijayendra may even be asked to contest from Varuna.

If the party agrees, then he will be pitted against former CM Siddaramaiah. Incidentally, Vijayendra faced serious embarrassment in 2018 when he  sought a ticket for Varuna and then proceeded to pitch tent in this constituency in Mysuru district. Soon after he started campaigning for himself, the party high command asked him to leave and nominated another party worker in his place as candidate.

The Gowda Clan

A la the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, HD Deve Gowda, former Prime Minister and CM, several times Lok Sabha MP and MLA, and twice Rajya Sabha MP, has promoted many from his family in politics. The beneficiaries include his two sons, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and former minister HD Revanna, Revanna’s two sons Prajwal, an LS MP, and Suraj, an MLC, and Kumaraswamy’s actor-son Nikhil Kumar, who is contesting for the Ramanagara assembly elections.

The seat was held by his mother Anitha, a two-term MLA. Not just these family members, Bhavani, wife of Revanna, is demanding the ticket from Hassan constituency and in all probability, will get it.

Congress’s Fledgling Dynasts

Siddaramaiah, the 75-year-old former CM and a strong candidate to take over as CM, should Congress win this time, has faced embarrassment over the last few weeks as he struggled to zero in on a seat for himself. After giving up the Varuna seat for his son Yathindra, a practising medical doctor, Siddaramaiah contested from two seats in 2018: Chamundeshwari in south Karnataka and Badami in the north.

He lost in the former and scraped through in the latter. Now Siddaramaiah, who wanted to bring to politics his first son Rakesh but could not as he died while on a visit abroad, will contest from Varuna and possibly from Kolar, with Yathindra agreeing to take a back seat for his father.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the first leader of the Congress outside the Gandhi family to become the party chief in 24 years, has groomed his son Priyank, a former state minister and a two-time MLA, for quite a long time. Senior party leader Dinesh Gundu Rao, who was a former Karnataka Congress party president, is the son of flamboyant former CM R Gundu Rao. Another former Karnataka CM Dharam Singh’s two sons Ajay Singh and Vijay Singh are also Congress legislators.

Others In the Fray

Incumbent Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai’s father was Janata icon SR Bommai, who was the state’s CM between 1988 and 1989 before being dismissed unceremoniously.  Another former chief minister S Bangarappa’s two sons are in politics, Kumar is a BJP MLA from home turf Soraba in Sagara taluk of Shivamogga district while brother Madhu, Kumar’s bitter rival, is with the Congress presently.

Others like state Congress chief DK Shivakumar and brother DK Suresh, a two-term LS MP, veteran Congressman Shyamanur Shivashankarappa and son Mallikarjuna, the three Jarkiholi brothers – Satish (Congress), Ramesh and Balachandra (both BJP); former Union minister KH Muniyappa and daughter Roopa Shashidhar, an MLA(Congress); former home minister Ramalinga Reddy and daughter Sowmya, both MLAs, would all qualify as “mini-dynasties”.

Come May 13 we will know how many of these “dynasts” get to “serve” another term or bite the dust.