With the focus on ‘next generation’ faces, winnability and caste balance to ensure a return to the driver’s seat of the ruling party in the state, the BJP is compelled to give tickets to family members of current or former politicians.
If you look at the two lists announced by the BJP so far, tickets have been given to 16 children of former or present MLAs, two spouses, four brothers and six uncles/nephews/brothers.
sons and daughters benefit
The Congress, which has been the target of the BJP’s ‘dynasty’ attack, has been quick to weed out dynasty from the list of 212 candidates for the total 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly.
Sixteen candidates – who are sons and daughters of former or sitting MLAs in Karnataka – have been given BJP tickets.
Topping the list is Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, son of SR Bommai, who served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka between 1988 and ’89. Bommai, a three-time MLA from Shiggaon, has been given ticket to contest from the seat this time too.
Parliamentary Board member and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa’s son BY Vijayendra will contest from Shikaripura. BSY recently retired from electoral politics and announced that his son would stand in his place. Nikhil Katti, son of the late Umesh Katti, will contest from Hukeri, while Chincholi MLA Avinash Jadhav – son of BJP Lok Sabha MP Umesh Jadhav – will contest from the same seat. The current MLA from Kalaburagi South, Dattatreya Patil, is the son of late Chandrasekhar Patil Revoor, who represented the same seat. The sitting MLA from Dharwad, Amrit Desai, son of former MLA Ayyappa Basavaraj Desai, has also been given the ticket.
Anand Singh, who is a minister in the Bommai government, has expressed hope of getting a ticket in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He sought and managed to get a ticket for his son Siddhartha Singh from Vijayanagara in the newly formed Vijayanagara district.
Arvind Belad (son of former MLA Chandrakant Belad), who currently represents Hubballi-Dharwad-West assembly seat, will contest again.
Hiriyur MLA Poornima Srinivas, daughter of former minister A Krishnappa, will contest. BJP’s candidate from Tumakuru City, G.B. Jyoti Ganesh, son of Tumakuru MP GS Basavaraj; Saptagiri Gowda, who will contest from Gandhinagar, is the son of former minister Ramachandra Gowda; BJP candidate from Sira, Rajesh Gowda is the son of former Lok Sabha MP from Chitradurga, CP Mudalgiriappa.
Gautam Gowda has been given ticket to contest from Ramanagaram and will face Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy. Gowda is the son of former JD(S) MLC Marilinge Gowda. Pritam Nagappa’s parents – father H Nagappa and mother Parimala Nagappa – have been legislators and the son will now contest from Hennur.
Ashwini Sampangi, currently the MLA from Kolar Gold Fields, is the daughter of Y Sampangi, who made way for his daughter to contest in the 2018 assembly elections.
Contesting the assembly elections for the first time, Lalita Anapur Yadgir is the former president of the CMC and the vice-president of the women’s wing of the BJP. She will contest from Gurmitkal and is the daughter of former Yadgir MLA Maulana Anpur. Somanagouda B Patil (Sasanur) has been given ticket from Deovar Hipparg and his father BS Patil Sasanur was former BJP MLA and minister in SM Krishna government.
Two husband and wife ministers Shashikala Jolle, wife of Chikkodi MP Annasaheb Jolle and Ratna Anand Mamani, wife of late Anand Mamani, Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly who passed away last year, have been nominated to contest from Nippani and Soundatti Yellamma respectively. Ticket given.
Jarkiholi, Katti and Reddy brothers are also in the fray on BJP ticket.
The Jarkiholi family and the Katti family get two tickets each. Two brothers of Gali Janardhana Reddy, a miner-turned-politician, have also been given tickets, who were once in the BJP and have now formed their own party, the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP). Somasekhara Reddy will contest from Ballari city while Karunakar Reddy will contest from Harappanahalli assembly seat.
In the current Assembly, four Jarkiholi brothers – Ramesh (BJP), Balachandra (BJP), Lakhan (Independent) and Satish (Congress) – were elected to the Upper and Lower Houses of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
Former ministers Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi will contest from Gokak and Arabhavi on BP tickets. It is interesting to note that Balachandra is also the chairman of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), the parent company of Nandini milk products, which was in the news for power tussle with Amul.
Senior BJP leader Umesh Katti, an influential North Karnataka leader who tested political waters in several parties before finally settling down with the BJP, passed away recently. His son Nikhil is contesting from Hukkeri and his uncle Ramesh Katti – who previously represented the Chikkodi Lok Sabha seat from 2009–2014 – has been given a party ticket to contest from Chikkodi Salga.
Ravi Subramanya, uncle of Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, who is also a sitting MLA, has been given Basavanagudi ticket, while Suresh Babu, nephew of senior BJP leader and minister B Sriramulu, will contest from Kampli. Sriramulu himself is the nephew of Ballari MP Sunna Fakirappa and the leader has shifted his constituency from Molakalmuru to Ballari Rural. Sriramulu had contested from two seats, Badami and Molkalamuru, in the 2018 elections. In Badami, he gave a tough fight to the then former Chief Minister and current Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and lost by a narrow margin of 1,696 votes.
CV Raman Nagar MLA S Raghu is the brother-in-law of former minister Arvind Limbavali, who also represents the Mahadevapura assembly constituency.
The brother-in-law of GT Deve Gowda, known as the giant killer who defeated Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari in the last elections, has been given ticket to contest from Siddalaghatta constituency.
Kumar Bangarappa, son of former Congress chief minister S Bangarappa and former BJP minister representing Sorab, will once again contest from his father’s seat on a BJP ticket.
The BJP has fielded Nagraj Chabbi, who quit the Congress last week to join the saffron party, as its candidate from the Kalghatgi assembly constituency, while his nephew Shivraj Sajjanar, the sitting MLA from Hangal, has been fielded once again. Ticket given. Same seat.
Responding to the list, Karnataka Congress spokesperson Priyank Kharge said: “BJP claiming to be a non-dynastic party is the biggest myth in the country. See from top to bottom, from Delhi to Karnataka… From Rajnath Singh’s son to Amit Shah’s son, he has always got this protection. At one point in Karnataka, they wanted three people from Yeddyurappa’s family – BSY himself and his sons Vijayendra and Raghavendra – into politics. If you are completely against dynastic politics, you should be completely [against it] And take a tough stand – no relatives, no sons or daughters. You cannot have a blow hot, blow cold relationship.
“I have a question. Why is BJP shying away from declaring his next of kin? BJP should start conducting DNA tests because they are so ashamed to call their relatives. Are they ashamed to publicly show that Are they from the same family?
However, BJP’s chief spokesperson MG Mahesh said the party’s belief about family politics is that one family or one dynasty cannot control the entire political party. “We are not against any member of the family participating in politics. Our point of concern is that one family or one dynasty cannot control a party. BJP is a cadre based party and of course we are accommodating the family members of leaders as they have been working for 30-40 years and contributing to BJP for decades. A family in Congress itself is taking decisions for the political party which is not sensible.
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