Brothers to fight it out in Karnataka polls

The forthcoming elections in Karnataka will have something unique - brothers. The May elections will see 24 candidates contesting elections with or against their brothers.

Although there have been instances brothers contesting polls in the past, this time around, the number is more than double compared to the 11 brothers who fought the elections the last time.

From the H D Deve Gowda household, both former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and his brother H D Revanna would be contesting the elections on Janata Dal-Secular ticket.

The Reddy brothers, G Somashekhara and Karunakar Reddy, will contest polls on Bharatiya Janata Party tickets.

The sons of former chief minister S Bangarappa too will battle it out, but they will do so from different parties. Kumar Bangarappa will be fighting on a Congress ticket, while Madhu Bangarappa would be a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. They will fight directly against each other from the Sorab constituency in Shimoga. Interestingly, their father, Bangarappa, is a leader for the Samajwadi Party.

Also involved in a direct fight will be Ramesh Jharkholi (Congress) and his brother Bhimish Jharkoli (BJP) from the Gokak constituency. The other three brothers from the same Jharkholi house to be contesting the elections this time would be Satish, Balachandra and Lakhan for the Congress, JD-S and the BJP respectively.

In the Congress, H K Patil and his brother will be contesting the elections, while D K Shivakumar and his brother Suresh too will contest the polls on a Congress ticket. M Srinivas and his brother Krishnappa are also Congress candidates from Rajarasjeshwarinagar and Bangalore South respectively.

The sons of former chief minister J H Patel too will be in the race for the elections this time around. Paani Patel from the BSP and Mahima Patel from Suvarna Karnataka will be in the fray.

The other two brothers to be in the poll fray would be Shivananda Patil and his brother Vijugouda Patil from the Congress and JD-S respectively. Dharme Gowda and Bhoje Gowda too would contest the elections with JD-S tickets.