Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court Friday declared null and void the election of Prajwal Revanna to Parliament in 2019 for indulging in corrupt practices and financial and poll-related irregularities. Prajwal was the lone Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) MP elected to the Lok Sabha from Karnataka in 2019 and is the grandson of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.
However, the court also refused to declare the original petitioner, A. Manju, the winner from the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency as it found that he was also involved in corrupt practices. Manju, who had contested the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, is currently a JD(S) MLA in Karnataka after he joined the party just two months before the assembly elections held in May this year.
In its order, the high court wrote, “It is the duty of the candidate who is contesting the election (that he) shall declare his sources of income, assets and liabilities in order to choose the candidate by the voters. Therefore, it is mandatory on the part of the candidate to show his source of income, but the respondent failed to show his source of income which misled the voters.”
Prajwal is the brother of Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) Suraj Revanna and the son of H.D. Revanna, a former minister and sitting MLA from Holenarasipur in Hassan district. The high court has also issued a notice to Suraj and Revanna for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices to aid Prajwal’s victory in the 2019 elections. They have been asked to show cause as to why they cannot be named for doing so.
“There will be an appeal and a possible stay on the proceedings. Prajwal’s term will be completed by then,” one person directly aware of the developments told ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
One of the allegations was that Prajwal was transporting Rs 1.2 crore through his brother in a vehicle for allegedly distributing it to voters. This vehicle was intercepted by an election flying squad. At the time, Prajwal denied that it was meant for distribution among voters and even contended that the money was sent by his mother (Bhavani Revanna) “for purchasing groceries”.
The HC order also said that while Prajwal “misled the public” by declaring that he had taken over Rs 1 crore as a loan from Revanna, the latter declared before “the Registrar of Lokayukta…that (he) has given loan to his son for Rs 47,36,000”.
Another allegation was that the MP had underreported the actual value of his investments and liabilities. Prajwal, the court found, reported that the value of a convention hall owned by him (Chennambika Convention Hall) was shown as Rs 14.66 lakh, but it was worth more than Rs 5 crore and garnered him a monthly income of Rs 8 lakh which were not disclosed.
ThePrint tried reaching Prajwal through phone calls but they went unanswered. This report will be updated if he responds.
But citing a similar case filed against the petitioner, Manju, by Deveraje Gowda, a BJP party worker and advocate, the high court said the legislator was also involved in “corrupt practices, suppression of material facts, regarding income and pending cases, and he also cannot be declared as a returned candidate… of Hassan constituency”.
Meanwhile, Manju, who also served as minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government between 2013 and 2018, told ThePrint, “We are in the same party. That (case) was in 2019 and is a different matter. There is no connection between the two (his being in the JD(S) and the case). It is an old case….we are now in the same family.”
Manju added that the entire case was based on self-explanatory documentary evidence and should serve as a ‘wakeup call’ to all politicians.
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‘All in family’
The JD(S) and the Congress had stitched up a post-poll alliance after the fractured Karnataka assembly election verdict in 2018, and decided to extend this to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In 2019, Deve Gowda announced that Prajwal would take his place in the Hassan constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.
Gowda also announced that his other grandson and H.D. Kumaraswamy’s son, actor Nikhil Kumaraswamy, would contest from Mandya. The move heralded the third generation of political leaders from the Gowda household.
Prajwal won from Hassan but Nikhil lost from Mandya, further intensifying the tussle between Gowda’s politically active sons — Kumaraswamy and Revanna. Gowda himself lost from neighbouring Tumakuru in an election in which the BJP swept 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Kumaraswamy is a two-time chief minister and MLA from Channapatna. His wife is a former legislator from Ramanagara.
Revanna holds the Holenarsipura assembly seat. His wife, Bhavani, had sought a ticket to contest from Hassan city in the 2023 assembly elections. Kumaraswamy denied this and fielded Nikhil from Ramanagara after his own wife decided to sit it out.
However, Nikhil lost again, and Kumaraswamy and Gowda have said that he will not contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But the latter posted on X last week that the decision only meant that he would focus on acting, and not that he would “leave politics”.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)