Prajwal Revanna’s Sex Scandal: BJP and JDS Deal with Deve Gowda’s Grandson’s Scandal

JDS’ Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna has been involved in a scandal. He is the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. Mr. Revanna is currently out of India in Germany, following the emergence of videos that he claims to be a deliberate attempt to tarnish his image and affect voters’ opinions.

The scandal took a serious turn when a woman filed a police case against Mr. Revanna, accusing him of sexual assault spanning from 2019 to 2022. In response to the scandal, the Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah set up a special team to investigate the case. Despite the severity of the accusations, senior party leader and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy reiterated that there would be no forgiveness for anyone who had committed a crime, indicating confidence in the investigation by stating, “SIT will get him, don’t worry.”

The scandal has escalated into a political dispute between the JDS and the BJP, with some national party leaders distancing themselves from the state party and calling for a review. S Prakash, the BJP state unit’s chief spokesperson, emphasized that the party has no involvement with the videos and refrained from commenting further. The ruling Congress also got involved after reports emerged that some BJP leaders had informed their state boss of the videos in December.

Questions were raised about the BJP’s decision to field Mr. Revanna despite being aware of the videos. The unfolding controversy coincided with the second phase of voting for 14 of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats, including Hassan, while the remaining 14 were due to vote in the third phase on May 7. It’s noteworthy that the JDS is not contesting any of these seats, consistent with the seat-share agreement following their split from the Congress to join the BJP in October.