All you need to know about Prajwal Revanna, India’s third-youngest MP accused of sexual abuse

Prajwal is the JD(S)-BJP alliance candidate from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency. In Hassan, he is reportedly seen as an “arrogant young man” among locals. “In this region, arrogance, a feudal mindset and speaking in a rural dialect works. Even if you don’t carry out any development work, if you are attending marriages and other events of party workers, they will continue to be loyal to the leaders. This is what Prajwal followed, like his father Revanna,” says a former leader from Hassan region.

Prajwal Revanna Arrest | Rape-accused Hassan MP to be produced before court today

A student of Bangalore Institute of Technology, Prajwal Revanna is a mechanical engineer. He joined a post-graduation course in Australia but discontinued it for unknown reasons and joined politics. According to a JD(S) worker, Prajwal was groomed by his mother Bhavani Revanna, a former Hassan Zilla Panchayat member, and has been active in Hassan district politics since 2014.

There is a cold war between the families of H D Revanna and H D Kumaraswamy over staking claim to the legacy of JD(S) which Deve Gowda built, with both groups lording over separate regions. While Revanna is the leader in the Hassan region, Kumaraswamy has been more active in the Ramanagara and Mandya districts.

In 2013, Bhavani Revanna was denied a ticket from Krishnarajanagar, her home taluk, which did not go well with Revanna’s family. It is said that Kumaraswamy had a say in the ticket being rejected. “In meetings with local party workers, there are a lot of indirect references made by Prajwal which showed all was not well with the family,” the JD(S) worker added.

“Prajwal was very active even before becoming an MP. He used to participate in party workers’ meetings and whenever there were issues or people needed any help, he was available. We never knew about these kinds of activities,” claims S Devegowda, a senior JD(S) politician who has been the party’s Hassan taluk president for 25 years.

Devegowda recalls that in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, Prajwal wanted to contest from either Hunsur or Yeshwanthpura in Bengaluru and was working towards it. However, the party denied him a ticket. Then, in 2019, in a surprise turn of events, Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil was picked to contest the Mandya Lok Sabha seat. Pressure mounted on H D Deve Gowda to launch Prajwal into the political arena. Subsequently, Deve Gowda sacrificed his Hassan seat and allowed 28-year-old Prajwal Revanna to contest. He won with a margin of 1.41 lakh votes. At the time, the Congress did not field any candidate against Prajwal and, in fact, even extended support to him.

With Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah now attacking the BJP for allowing Prajwal Revanna to contest the Lok Sabha elections, Opposition leaders hit back with photos showing how the former had spoken in favour of Prajwal Revanna in 2019. One of Siddaramaiah’s tweets at the time read: “Shri Prajwal Revanna is a young leader with great vision for Karnataka with high support in Hassan. I request everyone to cast their votes in his favour in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2019.”

The outcome of the 2019 elections was a mixed bag for the Deve Gowda family. Nikhil lost Mandya to Sumalatha Ambareesh and H D Deve Gowda lost to G S Basavaraj in Tumakuru. Prajwal offered to give up the Hassan seat for his grandfather but the offer was never taken up.

The day he took oath as the third youngest MP in the 17th Lok Sabha, Prajwal’s then BJP opponent A Manju filed a case alleging non-disclosure of assets in his affidavit. In September 2023, the Karnataka High Court declared Prajwal Revanna’s election null and void.

This year, with the BJP and the JD(S) forming an alliance, the Deve Gowda family was initially divided over giving a ticket to Prajwal as they were allegedly aware of the sexual assault allegations but not to this magnitude, said a source in JD(S). H D Kumaraswamy himself said in an interview,”[Union Home Minister] Amit Shah had said that there were few issues but Deve Gowda said that they would ensure his victory and got Prajwal a ticket.”

After the allegations became public – nearly 3,000 clips of sex videos and images purportedly recorded by Prajwal Revanna became public – the MP fled India on April 27, a day after Hassan voted in the Lok Sabha elections.

During his Lok Sabha campaign, Prajwal frequently referred to his “mistakes” and sought “forgiveness” emphasising that he was committed to his work in the last five years. “In most of his campaigns, he used to say, ‘If I have committed any mistake in these years, treat me like your son and forgive me.’ Many of us thought that he said that out of humility but now we are learning about his mistakes,” a JD(S) worker said.