A 40yearold family fight is back on the cards in Hassan with thirdgeneration contestants
The tough fight 31yearold Shreyas M. Patel gave to senior Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Revanna in Holenarsipur constituency in the Assembly election last year is what is said to have clinched the Congress ticket for him to contest the Lok Sabha election from Hassan. The Congress announced its first list of candidates on Friday.
Mr. Patel is likely to be pitted against incumbent JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna (whose name is yet to be announced as the NDA candidate) and the duel will be the latest in the fourdecadelong feud between two politically opposing families.
Mr. Patel, grandson of the former Minister late G. Puttaswamy Gowda, lost the Holenarsipur seat by a thin margin of 3,152 votes against the former Minister and fivetime MLA Mr. Revanna, son of the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Though Mr. Revanna won the election, analysts of Hassan’s political events, termed it “practically a defeat”, given the margin.
Mr. Patel’s valiant fight impressed many workers and leaders of the party. Among other aspirants, including the former Minister B. Shivaramu, the former MLC M.A. Gopalswamy, and party leader B.P. Manje Gowda, Mr. Patel got the chance this time.
Many generations
Interestingly, Puttaswamy Gowda had contested against Mr. Deve Gowda of the then Janata Party for the first time in 1985 as an Independent candidate, after he was denied the Congress ticket. He lost the election. Later, he defeated Mr. Deve Gowda in the 1989 Assembly election and again in the 1999 Lok Sabha election .
Mr. Revanna and Puttaswamy Gowda fought for the Holenarsipur Assembly seat in 1994 and 2004. On both occasions, Mr. Revanna won. After Puttaswamy Gowda’s demise in 2006, his daughterinlaw S.G. Anupama contested against Mr. Revanna in the 2008 and 2013 Assembly elections and lost on both occasions. In 2019, Mr. Deve Gowda gave up the Hassan Lok Sabha seat for his grandson Mr. Prajwal Revanna. With that, the third generation entered the electoral fray and won.
First through ZP
On the other hand, Ms. Anupama’s son, Mr. Patel, also entered electoral politics and was elected to the Hassan Zilla Panchayat. For the first time, he faced the Assembly election in 2023 and lost against Mr. Revanna. Now, he is likely to be pitted against Mr. Prajwal Revanna.
Though the Congress is in power in the State, the party has no strong presence in Hassan district. Of the eight Assembly constituencies in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress has won only two — Arsikere and Kadur. Of the remaining six, the BJP represents two and the JD (S) six. JD(S) leaders are already in campaign mode, with Mr. Deve Gowda taking the lead.