Deve Gowda’s grandson Prajwal — JD(S) only winner — offers to resign

A day after winning the Lok Sabha seat from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda who lost the Lok Sabha seat from Tumkur, offered to resign as Member of Parliament. Gowda had vacated the Hassan seat to make way for his grandson to contest.

“To reinstate confidence in the party, we have to fill the gap left by the defeat of Deve Gowda, I’ve decided to resign and make way for my grandfather to contest again and win,” Prajwal said.

Revanna was the only JD(S) candidate who won a seat for the party which contested in eight of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. He won by a margin of 1,41,324 votes to defeat BJP’s A Manju.

Also read: Family saga: The Karnataka dynasty of Gowda and sons turns grand

Gowda represented Hassan five time since 1991, only to vacate the seat this time to make way for Prajwal to contest. Gowda contested from Tumkur and lost to BJP’s G S Basavaraju by 13,339 votes.

It was a setback for the JD(S) where the family lost two seats—Tumkur and in Mandya—where another of his grandsons, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, lost to independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh.

The Congress-JD(S) coalition faced a rout with many senior leaders losing the election.

However, voters are not happy with the decision made by the young leader. “I voted for Prajwal Revanna, keeping aside their family politics and drama because I thought their work in this constituency deserves my vote. And if this is how they disrespect people’s mandate, then I will definitely vote for someone else,” Darshan, a voter from Hassan, tweeted.

While the party took no official call, Prajwal said he will arrive in Bengaluru on Friday (May 24) afternoon and hold talks with his grandfather and uncle (Chief Minister Kumaraswamy) about his decision.

With the poll debacle, the JD(S), led by Kumaraswamy, called for a meeting later on Friday to decide the party’s future course.