JD(S) MP Prajwal's election held null & void

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: JDS MP from Hassan, Prajwal Revanna’s election has been declared null and void by the High Court of Karnataka.

Justice K Natarajan in his judgement on Friday partly allowing the two petitions filed by G Devarajegowda, a voter from the constituency, and A Manju, the then BJP’s defeated candidate also directed the Election Commission of India to take action against Prajwal Revanna for election malpractice Conduct of Election Process Rules.

The petitions had claimed malpractice and non-declaration of assets to the Election Commission.

Justice K Natarajan dictated the operative portion of his judgement. “Both Election Petitions filed by the petitioners are allowed in part. The election of returned candidate, Respondent No.1 namely Prajwal Revanna alias Prajwal R, member of the Parliament, Constituency 16, Hassan (General) having been declared as returned candidate dated 23.5.2019 is declared as null and void,” Justice Natarajan said.

The HC however dismissed the prayer of the petitioners to declare A Manju as the winning candidate as he himself was involved in corrupt practices.

“The prayer of the petitioners in both the cases to declare A Manju as returned candidate is rejected in view of the findings that he himself (is) involved in corrupt practices,” the HC said.

The HC also directed the Election Commission to take action against Prajwal’s father and brother for election malpractice.

“HD Revanna and Suraj Revanna are named in the complaint under Representation of People’s Act for having committed corrupt practice at the time of election and also A Manju, who is also involved in corrupt practice. Election Commission to issue notice and comply with Conduct of Election Process Rules,” the HC said.

The petitions had cited several examples of malpractices as well as nondeclaration of assets by Prajwal. It was claimed that the Chennambika Conventional Hall wsa worth at least Rs.5 crore but was declared as worth only Rs.14 lakh by Prajwal.

Another example was the bank balance in an account declared as Rs.5 lakh but allegedly having a deposit of Rs.48 lakh. It was alleged that there were several benami assets of the MP and Income Tax fraud.

Two Election Petitions were filed against the election of Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Devegowda in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

A Manju, who fought the Lok Sabha election against Revanna on a BJP ticket but subsequently joined JDS and is currently a MLA.