Bengaluru: It is both personal and political as KPCC president DK Shivakumar’s eldest daughter Aishwarya is set to marry Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder, late VG Siddhartha’s son and BJP leader SM Krishna’s grandson Amartya Hegde after the Covid-19 scare abates. An engagement is scheduled for August and the wedding is likely to take place in October.
Aishwarya, 22, is an engineering graduate and looks after the administration of Global Academy of Technology founded by her father. The US-educated Amartya, 26, manages the family-run businesses that include CCD and teak with his mother Malavika.
DKS was a close friend of Siddhartha and still maintains a close rapport with Krishna. That makes it personal. But the marriage also has a political hue to it as DKS is a senior Congress leader and Krishna, once a Union Minister and Governor of Maharashtra, has his weight behind the BJP.
Sources say that the alliance between Amartya and Aishwarya was in the initial stages of discussion before Siddhartha’s tragic demise. Now the families have decided to take this forward. The two families reportedly met on Sunday at Shivakumar’s house in Sadashivanagar and finalised the proposal in the presence of Krishna and Siddhartha’s wife Malavika.
Both Krishna and DKS belong to the dominant Vokaliga community in Karnataka and traditions dictate that no auspicious events can be held within a year of the passing away of a family member.
DKS told ToI that “marriages are made in heaven. It’s all God’s wish. We need to wait for the completion of one year after Siddhartha’s passing away before proceeding with the marriage.” Siddhartha had died in unfortunate circumstances as he committed suicide by leaping into the Netravati river in Mangaluru on July 31 last year.
The alliance will be the second high-profile wedding in recent times with political overtones after JD(S) leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy married Congress leader M Krishnappa’s grandniece Revathi.
