New Delhi: Bhavani Revanna, daughter-on-law of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was denied a ticket as the party on Friday released its second list of 49 candidates for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. Ending the suspense about the Hassan constituency, JD(S) fielded H P Swaroop instead of Revanna, who was firm on contesting the state elections from this seat.
Announcing Swaroop's name as the Hassan candidate, Kumaraswamy, flanked by his brother H D Revanna, said, "The name has been finalised with the consent of Revanna and Bhavani, and the blessings of H D Deve Gowda."
Notably, Bhavani Revanna is a former Hassan zilla panchayat member and the wife of Kumaraswamy's elder brother H D Revanna. For this seat, Bhavani had the backing of her husband as well as her sons Prajwal Revanna, who is a Member of the Lok Sabha from Hassan, and Suraj Revanna, who is an MLC.
Among other names announced in the JD(S) second list include sitting MLAs H D Revanna (Holenarasipura), K S Lingesh (Belur), H K Kumaraswamy (Sakleshpur), and C N Balakrishna (Shravanabelagola).
Y S V Datta, who had resigned JD(S) and joined Congress to return to the party again after being denied a ticket there, has been fielded from Kadur. Former Minister A Manju, who recently joined JD(S), has also been fielded from Arakalagudu. He has earlier been with both Congress and BJP. JD(S) had earlier announced its first list of 93 candidates in December.
It is to be noted that the Hassan seat had become a major bone of contention as Bhavani Revanna, who had thrown her hat in the ring, refused to relent till the last minute, despite her brother-in-law and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy repeatedly making it clear that she would not be fielded, and instead a "loyal party worker" would be made to contest.