Trying to shed the tag of "father and sons party", the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Wednesday appointed A. Krishnappa, a recent entrant to the party from the Congress, as its Karnataka unit chief.
Krishnappa, who joined the JD-S in April as he was denied ticket by the Congress for the May 5 assembly election, succeeds H.D. Kumaraswamy, who is son of JD-S president H. D. Deve Gowda.
Gowda announced the appointment of Krishnappa late Wednesday after a meeting of senior leaders in Bangalore.
Kumaraswamy quit the post following the drubbing the party suffered in the Aug 21 bypolls to Bangalore Rural and Mandya Lok Sabha seats, considered the party's bastion. Mandya is about 80 km from Bangalore.
He remains leader of the JD-S party in the Karnataka assembly.
Krishnappa belongs to the Yadav community and was a Congress legislator for four times. He lost the May 5 assembly poll contesting as JD-S candidate.
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Apart from 'father and sons party', the JD-S is also often derided as a party dependent mainly on Vokkaliga caste, which makes up for about 15 percent of the state's over 60 million population and is dominant in the southern Karnataka.
The 'father and sons party' tag came about as Gowda was national president of the party, Kumaraswamy was Karnataka unit chief while his brother is a legislator. Kumaraswamy's wife Anita was also a legislator but lost in both the May 5 assembly poll and the Aug 21 Lok Sabha bypoll.