Hassan Election Results 2024 LIVE: Prajwal Revanna loses, Shreyas Patel secures big win

Prajwal Revanna of the Janata Dal (Secular) has lost from the Gowda family stronghold of Hassan. Revanna secured a total of 6,30,339 votes. Congress' Shreyas Patel has won from the seat with a margin of 42,649 votes. Patel got 6,72,988 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.

The constituency witnessed a stiff fight between two prominent political families of the state. Janata Dal (Secular)'s sitting MP and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's grandson Prajwal Revanna and his opponent from the Congress M Shreyas Patel were pitted against one another in this fight for prestige. 

Shreyas Patel is the grandson of Congress veteran G Putta Swamy Gowda. Patel is a former Hassan Zilla Panchayat member and has been given a ticket by the grand old party for his performance in the Assembly polls, as per reports. In Hassan, voting for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 took place during the second phase on April 26. 

Prajwal Revanna vs Shreyas Patel: The Hassan fight

While Revanna Jr is looking to retain his family turf, Patel is looking to stir an upset in the JD(S) stronghold and get the seat in the Congress' kitty. Shreyas Patel, however, is faced with an arduous task as the Hassan Lok Sabha seat is a Vokkaliga stronghold, devoutly loyal to Deve Gowda's family.

While the JD(S) may have the Vokkaliga advantage going for it in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the incumbent MP is in the middle of a series of sexual assault allegations after a USB drive with nearly 2,900 files with obscene videos and photos was circulated in Hassan ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He fled to Germany to evade arrest and questioning in the case. Due to the Vokkaliga advantage, the JDS has scored consecutive victories from this constituency since the last four decades, barring a few exceptions.

Hassan demographics

The constituency has nearly 78 per cent rural and 22 per cent urban voter base. On religious lines, the electorate comprises nearly 90 per cent Hindus, 5 per cent Muslims and rest others. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) constitutes nearly 22 per cent in the Hassan Lok Sabha seat. 

When did the JDS-Congress tussle begin in Hassan? 

The rivarly between Deve Gowda and the Shreyas Patel's grandfather and Congress veteran late Putta Swamy Gowda began in 1985, when the latter contested against the former PM as an independent candidate but lost. Later, he defeated Deve Gowda from the seat in the 1989 state elections and also scored an upset in the 1999 general elections as well. 

In 1999,  G Putta Swamy Gowda scored a major upset against HD Deve Gowda. Despite these setbacks, Deve Gowda has represented the constituency five times in the Lok Sabha. 

The rivalry continued for decades on end, with their next generations taking the fight forward. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prajwal Revanna won from Hassan with over 6.76 lakh votes and a vote share of 52.91 per cent. With this, he marked the entry of the third generation of Deve Gowda's family into politics.