HASSAN: Ahead of the counting on Tuesday, all eyes are on the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency where the sitting MP Prajwal Revanna, who is embroiled in a sexual abuse case, is seeking re-election.
The NDA candidate Prajwal, now in SIT custody, is pitted against Shreyas Patel of the Congress. A total of fifteen candidates including 12 independents are in the fray.
Political analysts are uncertain about the outcome. JDS leaders say the sexual abuse case has not reached people in rural areas of the district and may impact the party only in Hassan city. Congress leaders, however, said the sex abuse case has circulated like wildfire and the people have rejected the NDA candidate.
Despite the sexual abuse case, JDS leaders are expecting a win by over one lakh votes. On the other hand, Congress leaders are claiming a win by over 50,000 votes.
The Hassan Lok Sabha constituency is a Vokkaliga stronghold with former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who is Prajwal Revanna's grandfather, having won from here five times.
Interestingly, Congress candidate Patel's grandfather and former Karnataka minister G Puttaswamy Gowda also won from here in 1999, defeating Deve Gowda.
The two grandfathers had also fought each other twice in the assembly elections with Deve Gowda winning in 1985 and Puttaswamy Gowda winning in 1989.
Puttaswamy Gowda had also fought the assembly elections against Deve Gowda's son HD Revanna twice from Holenarsipur but lost both times.
Shreyas Patel had also contested the Karnataka assembly elections from Holenarsipur last year, losing narrowly by 3,152 votes to HD Revanna.
Now, it remains to be seen who wins the battle of the grandsons.
