Mangaluru: State Janata Dal (Secular) chief H D Kumaraswamy has ruled out the possibilities of his wife Anita Kumaraswamy or nephew Prajwal Revanna contesting the forthcoming assembly elections.

Setting to rest speculations in this regard, Kumaraswamy, MLA from Ramanagar said he has already directed party workers to scout for potential candidates from constituencies from where names of both Anita and Prajwal was being sounded in the run up to the polls.

Kumaraswamy, former CM, who brainstormed with party leaders about JD(S) event in Mangaluru on January 9 aimed at fostering communal amity in the region on Thursday, told TOI that, “Only me and H D Revanna, former minister will be taking the electoral plunge in 2018.

I do not want any criticism to stem from the fact that the party is backing only the party patriarch H D Deve Gowda’s kin in the electoral politics and want workers to be rest assured about it.”

With Anita’s name figuring from Kolar and Prajwal, recently appointed party general secretary by none other than his grandfather aspiring for a ticket from Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency in Bengaluru, speculations were rife that the entire Deve Gowda clan will gird up their loins for the rough and tough that electoral politics brings with it.

Kumaraswamy put a lid on these wild speculations with his assertion that it will only be the brothers battling it out.

While Revanna, elder of Deve Gowda’s sons expected to go fight from the family pocket borough of Holenarsipura in Hassan district, Kumaraswamy, the younger sibling, will contest from his current assembly constituency.

Kumaraswamy said the electoral winds blowing across Karnataka hint at JD(S) government to be running the show in Bengaluru and party has already started its ground work across regions in the run up to the polls to help realize this goal.