Bengaluru, India – The country’s current leader, Narendra Modi, stood behind former Indian Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and smiled for the cameras. Alongside Modi was HD Revanna, son of Deve Gowda. In another photo from this meeting, a young man can be seen standing a few meters away from Modi.
That young man, Prajwal Revanna, is now at the center of a political firestorm that threatens to change the electoral landscape in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Prajwal, his father and grandfather belong to the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), a regional party that is allied with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the ongoing national elections. It’s an alliance the BJP was hoping for to give its coalition a majority of Karnataka’s 28 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament.
But the leak of nearly 3,000 videos allegedly shot by 33-year-old Prajwal that appear to show him sexually abusing multiple women has turned the alliance into a weapon that the opposition Congress party is using against Modi and the BJP.
Prajwal, the sitting MP from Hassan in Karnataka, recontested as the coalition candidate from this constituency in the April 26 vote in the second phase of the national elections. Now the sex scandal looms over the rest of the Karnataka elections on May 7 – when 14 seats in the state vote.
Alka Lamba, leader of the Congress party’s women’s wing, said the videos had “shocked the conscience of Kannadigas”. [people whose roots originate from Karnataka and speak Kannada] and Indians alike,” it said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
“In these videos, some of which were recorded against the victim’s consent, women plead to be spared but MP Prajwal Revanna continues to brutalize and abuse them,” she said.
Separately, a woman has filed a police report against Prajwal, accusing him of sexually abusing her between 2019 and 2022.
Prajwal Revanna has denied all allegations and filed a countersuit on Sunday, claiming that the videos circulating were “manipulated”. He left for Germany, where he is probably currently staying.
On Tuesday, the JD(S) said it had temporarily suspended the MP from the party. Meanwhile, the Congress-led state government has launched a police probe into the allegations against Prajwal.
But questions have also emerged about whether the BJP knew about the videos: Prajwal’s former driver has confessed to passing the videos on a flash drive to another BJP leader, Devarajegowda.
Did the BJP know about this?
The sex scandal has erupted at a time when Modi has tightened his political focus on Karnataka ahead of the third phase of elections on May 7. On Sunday, Modi campaigned in Belagavi, Karnataka.
“Our daughters are not safe under the Congress government in Karnataka,” Modi said at the rally, adding that his party would protect women if voted to power.
Since the Prajwal scandal broke, the BJP has distanced itself from the case.
“The case of MP Prajwal Revanna is shocking. The BJP’s stand on this matter is clear – we stand with the power of Nari Shakti [women’s power]. “The BJP will never tolerate humiliation of Nari Shakti,” S Prakash, the party’s chief spokesperson in Karnataka, told Al Jazeera when asked about the party’s response.
“Despite being in power in Karnataka, the Congress government is playing politics instead of taking strict measures. Instead of asking us questions, Congressmen should question the Congress government in the state.”
But Congress members accused the BJP of having knowledge of the videos.
In a December 2023 letter shared by many Congress party members on social media and seen by Al Jazeera, Karnataka BJP chief Devarajegowda warned the party against nominating Prajwal as Hassan’s candidate.
“There are serious allegations against several leaders of the HD Deve Gowda family (including Prajwal Revanna, the NDA candidate) of the JD(S), the party with which we are allied,” his letter said.
He said he also received a USB drive containing the videos of the women Revanna allegedly sexually abused.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also criticized Prime Minister Modi for remaining silent on the case and supporting Prajwal’s candidature.
“Just hearing about his heinous crimes makes my heart tremble. He ruined the lives of hundreds of women. Modi ji, will you keep quiet?” she said in a post on X.
The leader with whom the Prime Minister is photographed putting his hand on his shoulder. The leader for whom the Prime Minister himself campaigned ten days earlier. Praise him on stage. Today this leader of Karnataka is fleeing the country. Just the news of his heinous crimes is heartbreaking. Who destroyed the lives of hundreds of women?
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) April 29, 2024
Members of the Congress party staged protests against Prajwal outside her office in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, on April 28 and 29.
How are elections influenced?
Still, it is unclear whether the allegations against Prajwal will stand – and whether they will harm the BJP-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka or the prime minister nationally.
“The BJP party and Modi voters are ignoring these indiscretions,” Rasheed Kidwai, an author and political analyst, told Al Jazeera.
He referred to another incident in 2023 when BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh, who heads the Indian Wrestling Federation, was accused of sexual abuse by many of the country’s top female wrestlers. Singh remains a free man on bail and the BJP is not known to have censured him.
However, there will be some impact on voting behavior, said Kidwai. “It will impact neutral or swing voters while the political impact will be limited to Karnataka,” Kidwai said.
What’s next?
The JD(S) is on the defensive. A published letter from party MP Sharan Gouda Kandkur described the videos as having caused great “embarrassment” to the JD(S).
Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda – Prajwal’s grandfather – also spoke. “If there is wrongdoing, action should be taken,” he said, stressing that the family and party leadership had no prior knowledge of the allegations.
The fact that Prajwal left the country despite the allegations was not surprising, Kidwai said.
“There are [a] There is a lot of shame around sex…so politicians duck and flee rather than face trial,” he said.
But at a press conference in Karnataka on Monday, the state’s former chief minister and Prajwal’s uncle HD Kumaraswamy said his nephew will not be forgiven if he is proven guilty.
“Uppu Thindavanu neeru kudiyabeku,” he said, referring to a Kannada proverb that means, “He who has consumed salt will drink water.”