Kumaraswamy indicates Bhavani Revanna may not be fielded from Hassan

Raichur (Karnataka), Jan 25 (PTI) JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday indicated that his sister-in-law Bhavani Revanna may not be fielded as the candidate from Hassan in the upcoming assembly polls, two days after she publicly claimed that her name has been finalised by the party.

Bhavani Revanna, a former Hassan Zilla Panchayat member, is wife of Kumaraswamy's elder brother and former Minister H D Revanna, and daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

"If it was necessary for Bhavani Revanna to contest, I would have fielded her myself, but she is not necessary there today, because we have a capable candidate there," Kumaraswamy said.

Speaking to reporters here, he also tried to clarify there is no conflict or unrest within the family. "For me, family means lakhs of workers who are building the party, I'm responsible to them." Stating that in Hassan the party has a capable candidate, the former Chief Minister said, "Bhavani may have a desire to contest from Hassan. If we did not have an able candidate, I would have asked her to contest. There is no question of family politics here." "Whenever we have had no candidate our family has come forward and contested from there. There is no such a situation here. I'm making it clear," he said, adding that "everyone will have the desire to contest elections, but without giving scope for any rift in the family, we will decide." Addressing a meeting of party workers here on Monday, Bhavani Revanna said a decision has been taken to field her as the JD(S) candidate from Hassan and her name will be officially declared soon.

According to party sources, weary of dynasty or family politics criticism engulfing the party ahead of polls, Kumaraswamy is said to be hesitant on fielding Bhavani Revanna, while she is considered to be ambitious and is quite open about her aspiration to contest the polls.

Stating that he had made his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy to contest from Madhugiri in 2008 bypolls, as party candidate Veerabadraiah was a government employee and his voluntary retirement was not accepted by the government, Kumaraswamy said, "as we ended up without a candidate at the last minute, with an intention to save party's pride, I fielded my wife." In Channapatna, JD(S) was unable to win for 20 years, as there was no candidate there, party workers made Anitha contest from there in 2013, but she lost from there. "To save the party she was made to contest from there...what I'm pointing out is the situation under which Anitha was fielded." Anitha Kumaraswamy is currently MLA from Ramanagara assembly segment.

Bhavani Revanna's sons Prajwal and Suraj are MP from Hassan and a MLC respectively. PTI KSU RS KSU KH KSU KH KH