Janata Dal (Secular) leader Swaroop Prakash on May 13 snatched the Hassan seat from the BJP’s Preetham J. Gowda, securing a victory by a margin of 7,854 votes.
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The seat witnessed a neck-and-neck fight with the JD(S) candidate bagging 85,176 votes while the BJP’s Gowda polled 77,322 votes. Congress candidate Banavase Rangaswamy was in third place with 4,305 votes.
The constituency attracted statewide attention ahead of the elections as Bhavani Revanna, wife of former minister H. D. Revanna was one among the aspirants of JD(S) ticket in Hassan.
Earlier, Preetham Gowda had challenged that he would win against either H. D. Revanna or his wife Bhavani Revanna with a margin not less than 50,000 votes. He said he would resign if his victory margin was less even by one vote.
Following the differences within H. D. Deve Gowda’s family over fielding Bhavani Revanna, finally, H. P. Swaroop, son of former four-time MLA H. S. Prakash was fielded. Former CM H. D. Kumaraswamy was in favour of Swaroop, while H. D. Revanna wanted the ticket for his wife.
However, after the candidate was finalised, the family members of H. D. Deve Gowda campaigned for Swaroop extensively. Lok Sabha member Prajwal Revanna, MLC Suraj Revanna did the campaign. Former PM H. D. Deve Gowda himself visited Hassan twice and campaigned for Swaroop.
