HASSAN: History repeats itself. Shreyas Patel, 32, won Hassan LS seat for the ruling Congress after two decades. It was termed a battle between grandsons. Shreyas, the grandson of former minister and Congress leader late G Puttaswamy Gowda, defeated Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda.
With this victory, Shreyas has earned the distinction of giant killer. Prajwal, the sitting MP, hails from a politically influential family. Former PM Gowda is his grandfather, Prajwal’s father HD Revanna is Holenarsipur MLA and former minister, uncle HD Kumaraswamy is former CM, aunt Anitha Kumaraswamy is former MLA, mother Bhavani Revanna is former Hassan ZP member, and his brother Suraj Revanna is MLC.
For Shreyas, this victory is a sweet revenge against Revanna, who defeated him by a narrow margin of 3,152 votes in the 2023 Assembly elections in Holenarasipur constituency.
Anupama Mahesh, mother of Shreyas, lost to Revanna in the 2008 and 2013 Assembly elections from Holenarasipur.
Shreyas, the former ZP member, has a good rapport with the local people and Congress leaders and workers.
Attributing his victory to the hard work of party workers and support of people from all sections of society, Shreyas told TNIE that the alleged sexual abuse cases involving Prajwal did not impact the LS election in Hassan.
Big blow to JDS as Prajwal loses in Gowda turf
Hassan: In a big blow to JDS supremo and former PM H D Devegowda, NDA alliance candidate and his grandson Prajwal Revanna lost the Lok Sabha polls in the party stronghold of Hassan to the Congress. Prajwal, a sitting MP who found himself in hot waters over his alleged involvement in the sex scandal case, was trumped by Shreyas Patel with a margin of 43,556 votes.
Though losing the turf to Congress will be humiliation for the JDS patriarch, the sex scandal issue that snowballed after the Phase I voting ensured that any verdict would be a political hot potato. Interestingly, except for counting agents, no senior JDS leaders visited the centre till the end of counting. It is said that support from a section of BJP workers helped the Congress candidate cruise to victory.