The JDS-BJP combine is weighing its options in case rape-accused Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna gets elected for a second term.

The fugitive Lok Sabha member, who is the grandson of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, has already put his party and its allies, including the BJP, in a spot with his alleged deeds.

Prajwal has been accused of sexual abuse in complaints being investigated by a special investigation team of Karnataka police formed soon after the emergence of the allegations and pen drives with 2,976 sexually explicit videos and pictures.

The contents of the pen drive were allegedly filmed by Prajwal himself to blackmail his victims into continued submission and non-disclosure of the alleged crimes.

On the penultimate day of polling for the Lok Sabha elections, JDS and BJP leaders were busy working out ways to manage the situation if Prajwal won from Hassan.

“Yes, of course. It is a serious issue for us to manage,” a senior state BJP functionary told The Telegraph on Saturday citing the catch-22 situation the allegations had landed the NDA in.

“We want Prajwal to win and take oath as an MP, which nobody can stop unless he is convicted. But a victory from Hassan would certainly set tongues wagging and put us on the defensive,” said the leader, who declined to be named.

Prajwal had won by 1,41,324 votes in 2019 when his party was in alliance with the Congress. Despite the controversy, he is expected to win against Congress’s M.
Shreyas Patel.

“We have no idea where he is. All I can say is he must return immediately. His father (H.D. Revanna) didn’t try to run away from the law. Instead, he faced the law and walked out on bail,” the BJP leader said.

Holenarasipura MLA Revanna was arrested on kidnap charges on May 4 based on a police complaint registered by the son of a woman who had briefly worked at his home in Hassan and was one of Prajwal’s victims.

A city court on May 13 granted bail to Revanna who walked out of the Bengaluru central prison the following day.

A JDS functionary said the party would take a call on how to handle the situation arising from Prajwal winning Hassan. “First let him win. But I feel he should surrender before the results although some say he would return only after June 4.”

Gowda and his other son and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy have been appealing to Prajwal to surrender before the police and face the law.

In a public appeal shared on X, Gowda had on Thursday issued a “stern warning” to his fugitive grandson to come home and face the law, failing which he would have to face the ire of the family.

“This is not an appeal that I am making, it is a warning that I am issuing. If he does not heed this warning, he will have to face my anger and the anger of all his family members. The law will take care of the accusations against him, but not listening to the family will ensure his total isolation,” Gowda had warned.