BENGALURU: The tussle in the Janata Dal (Secular) over the Hassan candidate was finally resolved when the party announced H P Swaroop as its choice. But the Revanna vs H D Kumaraswamy fight is continuing with the former announcing Y S V Datta, a longtime aide of party patriarch H D Deve Gowda, as it candidate from Kadur in Chikkamagalur district. Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had earlier announced that Dhananjay will be the JD(S) candidate
Datta, a close aide to Deve Gowda, but it is said that his family members forced him to quit the JD(S) due to internal strife in the party. Datta recently joined the Congress, but was denied a ticket for the upcoming election and had decided to contest as an Independent candidate. But now, he has returned to the JD(S) after discussions with Revanna and his son Prajwal Revanna.
Recently, Kumaraswamy had stated that those who left the JD(S) would not be admitted back, when Datta showed his inclination to return to the party fold. However, Revanna and his family welcomed Datta back to the party and the electoral battlefield, leading to confusion among the rank and file. The tug-of-war has led to speculation that this may be Revanna’s way of getting back at Kumaraswamy for denying a ticket to Bhavani.
Meanwhile, Dhananjay said Y S V Datta should apologise to the party workers and to the people of Kadur for claiming that he will be the candidate. Dhananjay, whose name has already been unofficially declared as candidate from Kadur, said if Datta contest, he will even lose his deposit.
“Datta is misusing his proximity with H D Deve Gowda to make such claims. He has called on the family members and exerted pressure on them. When Datta joined the Congress, he made allegations against Kumaraswamy and even said the JD(S) is the B-team of the BJP”, Dhananjay insisted.