Blog: The "Nepo Kids" Of Karnataka Election

The pride with which Sachin Tendulkar watches his son Arjun on the cricket field.

The love in Shah Rukh Khan's posts after daughter Suhana bags a high-profile endorsement contract.

The Tatas, the Birlas, and their business heirs.

Why should we expect politicians to be any different?

In the Karnataka election, blood has again proved to be thicker than water, starting with the best-known BJP politician in the state, BS Yediyurappa. The veteran stepped down as Chief Minister and will not contest the elections, but he is clearly the face of the ruling party's campaign. He is not contesting from his seat Shikaripura in Shivamogga district, but the person replacing him is his son, Vijayendra.

In the Congress, things were reversed in a way. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah had given his safe seat of Varuna to his son Yathindra in the 2018 election. This year, the father, a potential chief minister candidate for his party, has reclaimed the seat and the son has dutifully stepped aside.

The third major party in the state, the Janata Dal Secular, practically embodies the concept of a family-run party. Patriarch HD Deve Gowda kept a close eye on state politics even when he was briefly Prime Minister of the country. His son HD Kumaraswamy has been state chief minister twice.

Kumaraswamy contested two seats in 2018, Channapatna and Ramanagara, winning them both. He held on to Channapatna and his wife, Anitha, contested and won from Ramanagara in the by-election that followed.

Kumaraswamy will try to hold on to Channapatna this time. His son Nikhil, who contested and lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Mandya, has been given another chance to contest in Ramanagara, the seat held by his mother.

This year, Kumaraswamy's older brother HD Revanna's wife Bhavani had political ambitions. She wanted to be the JDS candidate from Hassan. Her brother-in-law resisted the idea, and he did prevail. Revanna is contesting from Holenarsipura, a seat he currently represents.

Revanna's son Prajwal is currently the sole MP from the JDS. In 2019, his grandfather Deve Gowda had handed over his safe seat of Hassan to Prajwal. Deve Gowda contested and lost from Tumakuru. Prajwal's younger brother Suraj is a Member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, an MLC.

If the Gowda family tree is confusing, just remember that politics runs in the family. With every possibility of neither the Congress nor the BJP winning a majority in the assembly, every seat won by the JDS will count for it to play its traditional role of kingmaker.

The less common combination of father-daughter candidates is seen with former Congress home minister Ramalinga Reddy and his daughter Sowmya. They seek to keep their Bengaluru South seats of BTM Layout and Jayanagar.

The father-son duo of M Krishnappa and his son Priyakrishna will contest as Congress candidates from two other city seats, Vijaynagar and Govindraj Nagar, where they are MLAs.

Kumar Bangarappa will contest as BJP candidate from Sorab in Shivamogga district. Not for the first time, he will be up against his brother Madhu, a Congress candidate. Madhu was defeated by Kumar in 2018. Both are sons of the late former chief minister of the state, S Bangarappa.

Nivedith Alva, son of Congress veteran Margaret Alva, will be keeping alive his family's long political tradition as the party's candidate in Kumta. His mother tweeted her congratulations: "Stay committed, courageous and honest my son. And run a positive campaign."

In Koppal, the daughter-in-law of sitting BJP MP Karadi Sanganna, Manjula, has been given the ticket by the party, reportedly after some pressure from her father-in-law.

The wife of BJP leader Arvind Limbavalli has been given the party's ticket for his seat Mahadevapura in Bengaluru.

The party's Anand Singh will not contest from Vijayanagar, which he represents, but his son Siddharth will.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is also the son of a former chief minister, the late SR Bommai.

The list may be exhausting - but it isn't exhaustive. There are more examples. When Karnataka politicians say the party is like their family, they could well mean it.

(Maya Sharma is a senior television journalist and writer based in Bengaluru.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.