Priyank Kharge to Vijayendra Yediyurappa: How Did the Dynasts Fare in Karnataka?

Karnataka has the unique distinction of two father-son duos becoming chief ministers of the state.

(Photo: The Quint)

Karnataka has the unique distinction of two father-son duos becoming chief ministers of the state – HD Deve Gowda-Kumaraswamy and SR Bommai and incumbent CM Basavaraj Bommai.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) losing its reins in Karnataka, and the Congress likely to form the next government, here's a look at how political dynasts performed in the state.

Basvaraj Bommai

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai won the Shiggaon by over 54,000 vote, against Congress candidate Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan. This was Bommai's fifth consecutive win from this seat. The last time Congress won this seat was in 1999.

His father SR Bommai, a Janata Parivar stalwart, served as the chief minister from August 1988 to April 1989.

However, the sitting chief minister will not return to power, with the BJP failing to meet the majority mark of 113 out of 224 seats.

"In spite of a lot of efforts put in by the Prime Minister and the BJP workers, we have not been able to make the (majority) mark. Once the full results come, we will do a detailed analysis," Bommai told reporters.

Priyank Kharge

Priyank Kharge, son of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, won the Chittapur constituency by a margin of 13,640 votes. He was pitted against BJP's Manikanta Rathod.

The constituency, which has been reserved for a Scheduled Caste (SC) candidate, has been a stronghold of the Congress party since the past few years.

Kharge won from the same region in the 2013 and 2018 Assembly elections. In 2008 elections, he had won the elections from Chittapur.

Priyank has also held several ministerial positions under the Siddaramaiah-led state government between 2013 and 2018.

Vijayendra Yediyurappa

In his debut election, BY Vijayendra, State Vice President of Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), son of former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, won from the Shikaripura constituency, his father's old turf. He won by a margin of 11,008 votes.
Considered a family seat of Yediyurappa, Independent SP Nagaraja Gowda, a Congress rebel, is the close second to Vijayendra in the seat.

The constituency – Shikaripura – has been held by Yediyurappa since 1983 and it marks the first time in the last four decades that the constituency went to the polls without the Karnataka leader contesting.

This is his electoral debut, Vijayendra has held several positions in the party.

Jarkiholi Brothers

Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi won the Karnataka assembly polls on BJP tickets, with Satish Jarkiholi, their brother, winning as a Congress candidate in the state’s Belagavi district.

Ramesh Jarkiholi, the eldest, was a minister in the 2018 Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) coalition government before joining the BJP. He was one of the key figures who led the legislators' resignations in 2019 led to Congress-JD(S) government’s fall and paved the way for the BJP’s return to power in the state.

HD Kumaraswamy & Nikhil Kumaraswamy

Son of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and a former chief minister himself, HD Kumaraswamy is maintaining a slight lead over BJP’s CP Yogeshwara in the Channapatna seat. 

While contesting from both Ramanagara and Channapatna in old Mysuru region in 2018, Kumaraswamy beat Yogeshwara with a margin of over 20,000 votes. He later vacated Ramanagara the seat in favour of his wife Anita Kumaraswamy.

In the 2023 Assembly elections, the party fielded Nikhil Kumaraswamy, HD's son and Deve Gowda's grandson from Ramanagara.

Nikhil lost the elections by a margin of 10,715 votes.

After a failed electoral debut in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the actor-politician contested his maiden Assembly polls.