The tug-of-war in the Deve Gowda family over picking the JD(S) candidate for Hassan assembly constituency ended on Friday after former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy kept his word and announced Swaroop Prakash's candidature for the seat.
Kumaraswamy's elder brother and Holenarsipura MLA H.D. Revanna, who had been lobbying hard for the ticket for his wife Bhavani Revanna, maintained that all was well with the family. "No one can break the unity of my family or separate me from my brother. My family members want to see Kumaraswamy become the chief minister. My wife too has clarified that she respects Deve Gowda's decision," said Revanna, who addressed the press meet in Bengaluru along with Kumaraswamy.
"The family never lets down our partyworkers. I spoke to Bhavani today morning and she too has agreed to the party fielding Swaroop. There is no difference of opinion in the family on this issue," said Kumaraswamy, while announcing the second list of 49 candidates for the May 10 polls.
The regional party has announced 93 candidates in the first list released last December.
It may be recalled that the feud between Kumaraswamy and Revanna started after Bhavani declared her candidature from Hassan and began campaigning.
An embarrassed Kumaraswamy remained adamant that the ticket would be given to an "ordinary partyworker" and endorsed the candidature of Swaroop, son of former MLA H.S. Prakash.
Kumaraswamy was wary of the party being labelled "family-centric" as Bhavani contesting the polls would make her the eighth family member to enter electoral politics. While Anitha, Kumaraswamy's wife, is an MLA and their son, Nikhil, is set to contest from her seat (Ramanagara), Prajwal, Revanna's younger son, is Hassan MP and his brother Suraj is an MLC.
Meanwhile, in a significant move, the JD(S) welcomed back Y.S.V. Datta, former MLA from Kadur, who had quit the party recently and joined the Congress. Datta retracted his steps into the JD(S) fold after the Congress denied him a ticket.