Kinship in Karnataka

Kinship in Karnataka

The trend is not confined to the Nehru-Gandhi family in the Congress, the Gowdas in the JD(S), Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu, or Karunakaran in Kerala. The phenomenon of our politicians promoting family members has reached a new high in Karnataka with more than 50 relatives of various leaders contesting the Assembly elections.

The children of a former Prime Minister and five former chief ministers — H D Deve Gowda (two sons), J H Patel (two sons), S R Bommai (two sons), S Bangarappa (two sons), R Gundurao (one son), and Ramakrishna Hegde (one daughter) — are in the fray. A few of them are battling it out in different Assembly segments, but some are contesting against each other.

Deve Gowda’s sons, former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and former minister H D Revanna, are contesting the Ramanagara and Holenarsipura (Hassan) seats, respectively, which have earlier been represented by the former Prime Minister.

The picture is a bit different in the Soraba Assembly segment in Shimoga, which has been held by former chief minister S Bangarappa’s family since 1967. His elder son, Kumar Bangarappa, who has held the seat for the last 10 years, has been pitted against his other son Madhu in the last two elections. This time, too, the two brothers are contesting against each other while the former chief minister is hoping to win from Shikaripura in the same district.

However, family politics has been taken to new heights by the Jharkiholi family. Five Jharkiholi brothers are seeking election from Belgaum district — three of them were legislators and two of these MLAs have even been ministers.

Former minister Satish Jharkiholi, who was a minister in the Dharam Singh-led Congress-JD(S) government, is now seeking re-election from the Yamakanmaradi constituency. His brother Lakhan is contesting against him as a JD(S) candidate. Former MLA Ramesh Jharkiholi (Congress) is pitted against first-timer Bheemshi Jharkiholi (BJP) in Gokak. Former minister Balchandra Jharkiholi is seeking re-election on a JD(S) ticket from Aarabhavi.

In Bellary, mining barons, including member of Parliament G Karunakara Reddy and his brother G Somashekhara Reddy are seeking to enter the Assembly from Harpanahalli and Bellary City on BJP tickets, while cousins Anil Lad and Santosh Lad are seeking re-election from Bellary City and Khalaghataki (Dharwad district), respectively, on Congress tickets.

Another interesting fight that is on the cards is that of Congress parliamentarian A Venkatesh Naik contesting against his grandson Shivanagoud Naik of the JD(S) in Devadurga Assembly seat in Raichur district, while three family members — former MLAs Jyothi Reddy of the JD(S), Shivashankar Reddy (Congress) and first-timer Ravinarayan Reddy (BJP) have been pitted against each other in the Gouribidanur Assembly segment in Chikkaballapur district. Former MLA

Ashwathnarayana Reddy, another relative, is seeking to enter the Karnataka Assembly from Chikkaballapur constituency.

Political observers are expressing concern over the monopoly and feel that electoral reforms have taken a backseat as family politics has been encouraged by most parties. They feel that the situation is not going to improve unless there is a mechanism to regulate internal party democracy.

Sandeep Shastri, a political analyst and director of the International Academy for Creative Teaching at Bangalore, as well as Trilochan Sastry, a professor at IIM Bangalore and the founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms, attribute the growing dynasty politics to this lack of internal democracy. “This is an indication of the clear distortion of democratic norms,” says Shastri, adding that “internal democracy was the greatest lacunae in our political party system”.

Both feel that there should be reforms to regulate political parties, such as those in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, if not a laborious process like the one in the US. In Germany, candidates are democratically elected by local party workers through a secret ballot, Sastry points out.

The family-affair phenomenon, which was earlier confined to the Congress, has now spread to most parties, feels Sastry, who was responsible for making it mandatory for all candidates to declare their assets and liabilities, educational and criminal backgrounds. “Chieftains, who don’t want fresh blood to come into politics and who want their own families to be helped to power and wealth, have brought about this situation,” he says.

The Congress’ dynastic trend, which had prompted several politicians to break away and form their own parties, has now become the norm and even the BJP is not an exception. In Bangalore alone, the party has nominated five brothers of two families, while it has two brothers in Bellary and the neighbouring Davanagere districts contesting the elections.

“It’s ironic that those who opposed family rule are now encouraging it,” says Shastri. He, however, doesn’t see this phenomenon of dynastic rule as exceptional to the Indian polity. “We have always had this culture of promoting offspring,” he says, and hastens to add that the trend can only help children or relatives get a foothold. “To establish oneself in politics, one needs to prove one’s worth, even after getting that initial push,” he says.