 "Congress’s A K Antony (left) has expressed his wish that his son Anil lose")
Congress’s A K Antony (left) has expressed his wish that his son Anil lose from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta as BJP candidate
Senior Congress leader AK Antony is unwell and is unlikely to campaign against his son Anil, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta.
But his wish that he would rather have his son lose is reminiscent of the political discord between BJP’s Vijayaraje Scindia and her son, Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia, in the 1984 Lok Sabha election for the Gwalior seat.
The Antony family saga is one of many instances of the exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions stoking family feuds and sibling rivalries in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, not all parents are immune to the tug of filial bonds, even if it means straying from their ideological allegiance or party affiliation.
In Odisha, the Congress has asked its veteran legislator Suresh Routray, to explain his conduct in canvassing support for his son, Manmath, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate for the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat. Routray, 78, a six-term legislator from Jatani Assembly constituency, is a leader well-known for his one-liners.
More from Odisha
News report from Odisha said Suresh sought votes for his son in the city’s parks. In his defence, Suresh said he has been a Congress worker for 51 years and will die a Congress worker. “I have not asked anyone to vote for my son, but when people seek my advice on whether they should vote for my son, I tell them yes,” he said.
In Odisha’s Patkura Assembly constituency, in Kendrapara district, BJP leader and former minister Bijoy Mohapatra is campaigning for his son, Arabinda, the BJD candidate from the seat. Bijoy, one of the founders of the BJD in 1997, turned a bitter critic and opponent of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in later years. He lost from Patkura as a BJP candidate in 2019 and has largely been inactive in the BJP ever since. However, the Kendrapara unit of the BJP has demanded disciplinary action against Bijoy.
Contesting cousins
In Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa, YS Sharmila Reddy, the state unit chief of the Congress, is contesting against her cousin, sitting MP YS Avinash Reddy of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). Sharmila is the sister of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who heads the YSRCP. Avinash Reddy is facing allegations of having a hand in the murder of Sharmila’s uncle, YS Vivekananda Reddy, a former Kadapa MP. YS Vivekananda Reddy, younger brother of former CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the father of Sharmila and Jagan Mohan, was killed at his residence on March 15, 2019, weeks before the elections.
And mended relations
From Bihar’s Samastipur, Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has fielded Sambhavi Choudhary, daughter of Janata Dal (United) Minister Ashok Kumar Choudhary. Her grandfather Mahavir Choudhary was a former Bihar minister from Congress. Relations between Chirag and JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar have mended after the bitterness of the 2020 Assembly polls as their parties are now part of the National Democratic Alliance.
A father’s act
Earlier this month, a social media post showing Sanghamitra Maurya, the BJP’s Badaun Lok Sabha MP, bursting into tears caught people’s attention. In the run up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in March 2022, her father Swami Prasad Maurya, a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, quit the BJP to join the Samajwadi Party (SP), leaving her daughter answering questions about her allegiance to the party. Swami Prasad has since quit the SP and floated his own party, while the BJP has denied Sanghamitra the opportunity to defend her seat.
Quitting politics
With his father, former Union minister, Yashwant Sinha turning a critic of the Narendra Modi-led government, joining the Trinamool Congress and contesting as the Opposition’s presidential candidate against Droupadi Murmu led to inconvenient questions being asked of his son Jayant Sinha. For the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Jayant, a two-term MP from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, announced his decision to quit active politics hours before the BJP announced its first list of candidates on March 2.
Family dynamics
In the 2023 Assembly polls in Karnataka, A Manju of the Janata Dal (Secular) was elected from Hassan’s Arkalgud constituency, while his son, Mantar Gowda, was elected from Kodagu district’s Madikeri constituency as a Congress candidate. Manju had quit the Congress in 2018.
In 1984, Madhavrao Scindia, at the insistence of Rajiv Gandhi, contested from the Gwalior seat, defeating BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee, with Madhavrao’s mother, Vijayaraje, campaigning against her son. Madhavrao’s son, Jyotiraditya, followed in his father’s footsteps to remain in the Congress for two decades before joining the BJP in 2020. His aunts, former Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and former Madhya Pradesh minister Yashodhara Raje, are in the BJP.
First Published: Apr 11 2024 | 11:19 PM IST
