Rise and fall
The NDA’s candidate in Hassan, grandson of former PM Deve Gowda, is accused of sexual assault on several women and faces arrest when he returns to the country
From being the sole MP from Janata Dal (Secular) in the Lok Sabha in 2019 to being suspended by the party in 2024 and facing an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for alleged sexual assault on women, Prajwal Revanna’s fall has been quick and dramatic. Believed to be in Germany, the Hassan MP and grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda skipped the summons from the SIT, which has now got a lookout circular issued at all entry points to the country. He is charged with rape.
Prajwal’s 2024 election campaign from Hassan has been marred by the now infamous ‘pen drives’ that has changed the course of the election narrative in Karnataka. Prajwal, as the NDA candidate, is facing the Congress’s Shreyas Patel.
The pen drive ¦oating around Hassan has 2,976 les, the bulk of which are screenshots of chats, video calls with several women and nearly 100 videos.
The 2019 parliamentary elections saw the rise of Prajwal. The rst member of the third generation in the Gowda family to taste election success, the 28year old was among the young Parliamentarians in the country in 2019. The rest of the family, however, was not as lucky. Mr. Deve Gowda, who had vacated his home turf Hassan for his grandson and moved to neighbouring Tumakuru, tasted defeat while another grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy lost from Mandya.
Though publicly Prajwal was seen as “an arrogant young man with a feudal mindset”, long-time observers of the Gowda family say his public actions were mostly aimed at cementing his place politically in the district and challenging the power of his uncle and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy within the party. Though there were murmurs in Hassan about sex tapes after he sought injunction from the court in June 2023, to prevent airing or publishing any explicit content, the magnitude of the scandal has sent shock waves among the public.
His father H.D. Revanna, a former Minister and elder brother of Mr. Kumaraswamy,
has run the party aairs in Hassan with an iron grip. Prajwal and his elder brother Sooraj Revanna, an MLC, have been part of the electioneering process of their father. He was a toddler when his grandfather became the Prime Minister and his father became a Cabinet Minister, and a teenager when his uncle became the Chief Minister of Karnataka in 2006.
An engineering graduate, Prajwal has always been interested in politics. He has often courted controversies, too, many of which were aimed at his uncle. When he was denied ticket to contest from Hunsur in the 2018 Assembly elections, his remark that “hardworking people get to sit in the back but those with suitcases get front seats”, aimed at Mr. Kumaraswamy, rattled the party leadership. Not hesitating to express his displeasure, Mr. Deve Gowda had said, “The boy’s future does not seem bright if he continues to talk like this.”
In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the former Prime Minister’s family was divided over giving ticket to Prajwal as allegations of sexual misconduct had come out in the open. Mr. Kumaraswamy is learnt to have opposed his candidature, but the Revanna family’s wish prevailed. During the campaign, Prajwal often referred to the ‘mistakes’ that he had committed and apologised. However, he did not disclose what those ‘mistakes’ were.
The family had also anticipated trouble since G. Devaraje Gowda, the BJP candidate who lost to Mr. Revanna in the 2023 assembly polls from Holenarasipura, had told the media about the presence of a large number of videos.
In a tight election that has become hard to predict, the issue has also given ammunition to the Congress to attack the BJP, and PM Narendra Modi has been questioned for sharing dais with a rape accused and allowing him to escape from the country.
BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, have tried to turn the tables by accusing the Congress of allowing him to ¦ee. As the blame game rages with another round of elections on May 7, Prajwal’s return to the country to face a probe is awaited.