Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is in police custody till June 6 in connection with sexual abuse and rape cases, has lost from Karnataka’s Hassan parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha election, by a margin of 42,649 votes according to ECI.
Revanna got 6,30,339 votes while his opponent INC's Shreyas M Patel leads with 6,72,988 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party's Gangadhar Bahujan is currently third with 12,173 votes.
The scandal over Revanna, who police say had fled the country, broke soon after the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls concluded in Karnataka on April 26. The MP, grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, was charged with rape and sexual assault after pen drives containing videos of him with different women surfaced in Hassan.
On Tuesday, early results showed the 33-year-old lawmaker’s closest rival was Shreyas M Patel. A key rival for Revanna is Congress candidate Shreyas M Patel, grandson of the late G Puttaswamy Gowda, who defeated Deve Gowda in the same constituency in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.
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The Hassan seat was represented by Deve Gowda in the lower house for three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2019. However, in the 2019 general elections, Gowda fielded his grandson Revanna who bagged a vote share of 52.96% and defeated his nearest rival and BJP leader Manju A by a margin of 11.06 per cent.
Full coverage of Lok Sabha Election 2024
The Hassan seat was represented by Deve Gowda in the lower house for three consecutive terms from 2004 to 2019. However, in the 2019 general elections, Gowda fielded his grandson Revanna who bagged a vote share of 52.96% and defeated his nearest rival and BJP leader Manju A by a margin of 11.06 per cent.
In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held roadshows and rallies in support of Revanna before the allegations surfaced.
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The Congress had alleged the ruling party was defending Revanna. However, the BJP countered the allegations, saying the state Congress government sat on evidence against Prajwal and did not initiate action on time.
On May 21, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy urged Prajwal Revanna to return to Karnataka and cooperate with the investigation.
Hassan Lok Sabha constituency went to the polls in the second phase on April 26 and recorded a vote turnout of 77.42%, the highest after 2009 when it saw a voter turnout of 73.47%, and in 2009, the voter turnout was recorded 69.17%.
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Parjwal, who graduated in mechanical engineering from Bangalore Institute of Technology, joined politics in 2014 and campaigned for his grandfather in Hassan the same year.
The Lok Sabha polls for 543 seats were held in seven phases starting from April 19, while the last phase was held on June 1.