The family of former prime minister and JDS patriarch HD Deve Gowda made national headlines once again after his grandson, the sitting MP of Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, 33, is accused of serial sexual abuse of women in his constituency. Though Revanna’s uncle, HD Kumaraswamy, the second-in-chief of JDS, has distanced the party from the alleged actions of his nephew, the issue has put the prominent political family of Karnataka in the spotlight, once again.
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The three generations of Gowda family
HD Deve Gowda, the son of a Hassan paddy farmer, went on to become a key face of the United Front, the coalition of 13 regional parties in 1998, which was formed against the national parties, and he was chosen to be the 11th prime minister of the country in 1996. Gowda, already a famous political face in Karnataka, was the first and only prime minister from the state.
Devegowda has four sons and two daughters, whereas two of his sons, HD Kumaraswamy and HD Revanna took over his second generation of political legacy along with their families. The families of both HD Kumaraswamy and HD Revanna are actively in Karnataka politics, and Kumaraswamy even went on to become the chief minister of Karnataka twice by joining hands with both the BJP and the Congress in two different terms. HD Revanna served as a cabinet minister in several governments.
Prajwal Revanna, the third-generation leader, who is now named in a sex harassment case, is the second son of HD Revanna. Suraj Revanna, the elder son of HD Revanna is also into politics and serving as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC)
HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who made his movie debut as a hero too, is actively into politics. Nikhil lost as an MP in 2019 and even as an MLA in 2023.
Controversy’s favorite children
Dealing with controversies and allegations is not new for the Gowdas in Karnataka. Years before Prajwal’s alleged sex tapes, Nikhil Kumaraswamy was cornered for creating a massive ruckus at Bengaluru’s restaurant for reportedly not serving food late at night in the year 2006. Nikhil was only 19 then, and his father, HD Kumaraswamy, was the chief minister of the state.
In 2011, a petition was filed against HD Kumaraswamy in the Karnataka High Court, asking the court to disqualify the leader as an MP for allegedly planning to get married for the second time to a Kannada actor. However, the accusations remained unproven.
Recently, Prajwal Revanna’s mother, Bhavani Revanna was also in the news for taking on a biker for crashing into her luxury SUV. In a viral video, she said, “If you want to die, you should have gone under a bus but not under my car. It costs ₹50 lakh to fix the damage, Will you give?” Devegowda later had to clarify his daughter-in-law’s behaviour by calling it a *”post-surgery stress”.
Bhavani Revanna also declared herself a JDS candidate in the 2023 assembly elections even before the party announced the list. However, she was later convinced not to contest and the ticket was given to Swaroop Prakash who won the election.
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