Newsmaker | Prajwal Revanna: In the Deve Gowda family feud, an agent provocateur

The man at the centre of one of the biggest political scandals of Karnataka politics has never been known to mind his words — or his party JD(S).

Denied a ticket to contest from Hunsur in the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2018, Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of JD(S) founder H D Deve Gowda, had said he would abide by the party’s decision, but lashed out, saying: “The party is promoting suitcase (or money) culture.”

As the JD(S) now tries to survive the damage arising from hundreds of videos allegedly showing him abusing many women, Prajwal is himself said to be in Germany – having flown out just a day after polling was over for the Hassan Lok Sabha seat from where he is re-contesting, and days before the allegations broke.

While rebelliousness and outspokenness are hardly characteristics desirous in a politician, Prajwal, 33, has picked enough tricks of the trade. In that, he is said to have had the guiding hand of his mother Bhavani Revanna, who comes from a political family of Krishnaranagar and is, by all accounts, the main driving force behind the ambitions of this side of the Deve Gowda family tree.

An engineering graduate, Prajwal, the son of Deve Gowda’s elder son H D Revanna, studied M.Tech in Australia. However, just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he came home and plunged straight into politics. Just 24 at the time, he was soon a prominent presence by Deve Gowda’s side in the old Mysuru region, which is a JD(S) bastion, mingling easily with people.

The competing branch of the family tree, led by H D Revanna’s younger brother and former CM H D Kumaraswamy, didn’t miss the signs. And a rivalry was born, that has continued to dog the JD(S).

In fact, no sooner had the damaging allegations against Prajwal broke than