Better if CM's son and nephew remain "backstage" now: Datta

Bengaluru: Amid reports that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s son was likely to be made JD(S) youth wing chief, party’s campaign committee President Y S V Datta Tuesday said it will be good if Nikhil Kumaraswamy and his cousin Prajwal Revanna remain “backstage” for some days.

“In my personal opinion, already Nikhil and Prajwal have shown their glow, it will be good if they remain backstage for same days,” Datta told reporters in response to a question.

The senior JD(S) leader’s comment is being seen as an opposition to any move to bring members of party patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s family to prominent posts, at a time when the regional party was being targeted for indulging in “family politics”, sources said.

Nikhil and Prajwal are the third generation from the Gowda family to be into politics.

Prajwal is the son of Gowda’s elder son and PWD minister H D Revanna.

While Nikhil and Deve Gowda had lost from Mandya and Tumkur seats during the recent Lok sabha polls, Prajwal, who contested from the family bastion of Hassan, was the lone winner from the family.

Datta also said the party’s ranks and file want AH Vishwanth, who recently submitted his resignation as JD(S) state unit chief, to continue in the position.

“We have requested Deve Gowda to convince Vishwanath,” he said.

Datta also said with an aim of organising the party, he has decided to go on 6000-7000 km padayatra in two stages from August.

TheJD(S) had won only one out of 7 seats it had contested in the Lok Sabha polls, while its coalition partner Congress too had managed to win one out of 21 seats it contested during the polls.

The BJP swept the polls, bagging 25 of the 28 seats.