Hassan people defeat Prajwal Revanna, facing charges of rape

JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna defeated in Lok Sabha polls by Congress candidate Shreyas Patel amid rape allegations.

JD(S) Member of Parliament Prajwal Revanna, facing charges of rape and sexual abuse of many women, suffered a defeat in Lok Sabha polls from Hassan against Congress candidate Shreyas M. Patel.

During the counting of votes at the Government Engineering College on Tuesday, Mr. Patel was declared the winner. He secured 6,72,988 votes (49.67%) and won by a margin of 42,649 votes against his nearest rival Prajwal Revanna of the JD(S), who secured 6,30,339 votes (46.52%).

With this, Congress has won the seat for the first time in the last 25 years. The last time, was in 1999 when Shreyas Patel’s grandfather, G. Puttaswamy Gowda, defeated former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. Both families have been political rivals for five decades. Puttaswamy Gowda contested against Deve Gowda and his son, H.D. Revanna. And, Puttaswamy Gowda’s daughter-in-law, S.G. Anupama, contested and lost twice against Revanna in the Assembly polls. In the Assembly elections held last year, Mr. Shreyas Patel lost the battle against Revanna by a thin margin. This time, he succeeded in defeating Revanna’s son, Prajwal Revanna, in the Lok Sabha polls.

Prajwal Revanna contested for the Hassan Lok Sabha seat for the first time in 2019 as his grandfather, H.D. Deve Gowda, who represented the seat then, moved to contest for Tumakuru. He won by a margin of 1.41 lakh votes against the BJP candidate, A. Manju. Then, the JD(S) had an alliance with the Congress.

This time, the JD(S) had an understanding with the BJP. The candidate had the support of his grandfather, H.D. Deve Gowda, who campaigned extensively, his father, H.D. Revanna, former minister and former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, his uncle, besides party MLAs in four Assembly constituencies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sought votes for him in a rally held in Mysuru.

However, a section of BJP leaders, including former Hassan MLA Preetham Gowda, was against fielding Prajwal Revanna as the NDA candidate. Many supporters of Preetham Gowda were seen openly campaigning for the Congress candidate. Interestingly, as the results were declared on Tuesday afternoon, many supporters of the Congress candidate, were seen raising slogans praising both Shreyas Patel and BJP leader Preetham Gowda.

Prajwal Revanna faced anti-incumbency as people in many places alleged that he hardly listened to their problems and raised the issues concerned to the constituency in parliament. Four days before the polling, objectionable videos and photos purportedly related to Prajwal Revanna went viral in Hassan. The videos could have played a role in his defeat. A day after the polls, Prajwal Revanna left the country. Following allegations of sexual abuse, the State government set up a SIT to probe the charges. Prajwal Revanna was arrested by the SIT on May 31 as he returned to India.