Distancing itself from the sexual abuse allegations against Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna, the BJP on Tuesday said it does not have any control over its alliance partner in Karnataka. The BJP also targeted the Congress saying it could have taken action against Prajwal as the state government led by it had “all the information”. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said the accusations against Prajwal, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) candidate in Hassan and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s grandson, involve alleged incidents that “cannot be tolerated”. The BJP general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, said his party would “extend all the support to the state government for a neutral probe”. However, both Shah and Agrawal blamed the Congress for delaying a probe and “letting him (Prajwal) leave the country”. The JD(S) on Tuesday suspended Prajwal from the party with immediate effect. “The Congress which wants to accuse us, I want to ask a small thing: whose government is there? It is a Congress government. The videos would have been in your knowledge because it was released at such a time. And till now, why has the Congress party not taken any action? The proceedings do not have to be done by us. Law and order is a state issue.” Agrawal, meanwhile, told The Indian Express, “The BJP has nothing to do with this episode. We have an alliance with the JD(S) for the election. The BJP cannot intervene in the internal affairs of the JD(S) to select its candidate. We neither hold ourselves responsible for what happened nor will we going to protect the accused. Law will take its course.” In the past few months, the BJP has targeted the Congress over the comments of its ally DMK over a variety of issues — from Santan Dharma and India to Hindu deity Ram. Agrawal said it was the Congress government’s responsibility to conduct a fair probe. “They have an FIR against him. It is their responsibility to find out the facts. We are with them as far as a neutral investigation is concerned. But if the government had information, why was it silent? Why did it allow him to go abroad? In a democratic system when one is moving out, if the person is accused of any criminal activities, the government concerned should issue a notice to stop him. The state government has not informed the central government or agencies,” he said. In Delhi, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the BJP had zero tolerance towards crimes against women and accused the Congress of double standards and selective outrage. "If the Congress government in Karnataka was aware of the case for weeks and months, then why did it not act so far against the accused,?" he asked. The BJP has faced criticism after local party leader G Devaraje Gowda, an advocate, on Monday claimed that he had written to state BJP chief B Y Vijayendra about not renominating Prajwal from Hassan. Gowda, whose plea in the Karnataka High Court led to Prajwal’s disqualification as an MP in 2023 (but the Supreme Court stayed it), raised the issue in public in January. In December, Deveraje Gowda wrote to the BJP central leadership alleging Prajwal had been indulging in “illegal activities involving women”. He warned that the Congress could use these videos during the Lok Sabha elections. Party insiders said though the central leadership had been kept in the loop about the allegations, they came from a leader known for his rivalry with Prajwal and his father H D Revanna, also an accused in the case. “The information came from a person known for his proximity to H D Kumaraswamy, with whom Prajwal's family has been having an internal feud,” said a BJP leader on the condition of anonymity. While both Kumaraswamy and his elder brother Revanna wanted their sons to be elected to the Lok Sabha, only Prajwal was elected in 2019 while Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil lost from Mandya. “With the allegations coming from sources known for their rivalry with Prajwal and his family, it was natural for the party to take it as part of their infighting. When a candidate is to be finalised, party leadership gets several ‘inputs’ from different sources. Those from the rivals or the contenders for the same seat have to be dismissed,” said a BJP source. But Agrawal said he never received any such information about the Hassan MP. “I was never told about Prajwal Revanna. He was a sitting MP and the JD(S) gave the seat to him. We have no authority on it. Does Rahul Gandhi have the details about all the candidates his INDI Alliance partners are giving tickets to? Does he keep a record of their behaviour and conduct?” BJP leaders admitted that the episode would "certainly hurt" the party at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to pitch women as one of the key pillars of his campaign. In March, the party was forced to withdraw its Asansol candidate Pawan Singh, a Bhojpuri singer-actor, after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) pointed to the vulgar lyrics of his songs and the kind of movies he acted in. The party also withdrew the nomination of Upendra Singh Rawat as its candidate in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, after a controversy over an “obscene video”.
