Karnataka polls: Swaroop Prakash of JD(S) snatches Hassan seat from BJP

Janata Dal (Secular) leader Swaroop Prakash on Saturday snatched the Hassan seat from the BJP's Preetham J Gowda, securing a victory by a margin of 8,895 votes. The seat witnessed a neck-and-neck fight with the JD(S) candidate bagging 84,005 votes while the BJP's Gowda polled 75,110 votes. Congress candidate Banavase Rangaswamy was in third place with 4241 votes.

In 2018, Gowda had broken the JD(S) monopoly on the seat, defeating H S Prakash by a margin of about 13,006 votes. Preetham then won the seat with total 63348 votes. Janata Dal (secular) candidate H S Prakash stood second with total 50342 votes. He lost by 13006 votes.

Swaroop is four-time MLA Prakash’s son.


The Hassan seat stayed with Deve Gowda’s party in all elections since 1983, except 1989, 1999 and 2018. While Congress won in 1989, BJP defeated JD(S) twice.

Votes of minorities are key in Hassan as they comprise more than 25% of the 2. 3 lakh electorate. The 65,000 Muslim, 10,000 Christian, 30,000 Dalit and 40,000 OBC voters form a significant chunk. Two subsects, Mullu and Dasa, dominate the 70,000 Vokkaliga votes.

With PTI Inputs