Famous British author Jeffrey Archer, who also dabbled in politics, wrote several political thrillers and novels dealing with political ambition, corruption, power struggles, government conspiracies and scandals. The political skulduggery and slugfest that have manifested themselves in Karnataka over the last few weeks may not measure up to Archer's standards, but they have all the ingredients of an Indian pot-boiler that has bemused the people.
The sad part is that it is not “fictional” but almost a daily drama being played out in the public domain. And the principal “actors” happen to be Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy, state Janata Dal (S) president and a prominent minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet at the Centre.
It all began on September 26 with the airing of an alleged “sting operation” targeting Siddaramaiah, as video footage appeared on a newly created YouTube channel called “Karnataka Honey Trap”. Over the next two days, it was widely circulated across other social media platforms, including X, causing a political storm. Siddaramaiah promptly filed a police complaint about the “tarnishing of my image with a fake video” and obtained a restraining order from a local court against further circulation of the video.
Siddaramaiah Calls Out ‘Congress Insiders'
Siddaramaiah's son and a minister in Shivakumar's cabinet, Dr Yathindra, told a news conference that a Congress leader who had aspired to contest the Assembly elections in 2023 but was denied the party ticket, and the head of a Kannada television channel were the “conspirators” behind the video. He claimed that “it was done at the behest of Congress insiders who should be exposed.” Later, Siddaramaiah himself went one step further and named one-time KPCC spokesperson Kripa Alva and Rakesh Shetty, managing director and owner of a Kannada news channel, Power TV, as the people “who masterminded the creation of the video”.
Shivakumar, who had been watching the developments silently from the sidelines, swung into action after the father-son duo pointed a finger at “Congress insiders” and asked party functionaries and the police to investigate the matter and take immediate remedial steps. KPCC president BK Hari Prasad called a press conference and announced the “expulsion” of Kripa Alva from the party for six years, without even serving her a notice or asking for her explanation.
The Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, Seemant Kumar Singh, sent a posse of policemen from the city crime branch (CCB) to raid the home and offices of Rakesh Shetty. The police later claimed that they had “seized” several documents and digital evidence from Shetty's premises. The police also summoned Kripa Alva to the CCB office and interrogated her for three hours.
Commissioner Blames HD Kumaraswamy
On October 24, the Bengaluru police arrested a Delhi-based person named Ritesh Pandey, alleging that he was one of the conspirators behind the sting operation. A few days later, Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar took the unusual step of briefing the media in the middle of the investigation and claimed that Pandey had spilled the beans about “visiting the New Delhi home of Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy with two mobile phones he had bought at Karol Bagh and taking the help of Kumaraswamy's associate Prajwal Prasad to upload the video on them”.
The commissioner said the police were still investigating why a video was made in 2023 concerning an incident that allegedly took place in 2011, when Siddaramaiah was accused of “misbehaving” with a 14-year-old Kerala girl, and how and why it surfaced in September 2026, as well as the people behind the operation.
He also claimed that the police investigation so far had revealed that the allegation was part of “a fabricated and deliberately constructed narrative… and the evidence collected does not substantiate the occurrence of any such incident as mentioned in the video”.
Elaborating on the commissioner's statement, KPCC spokesperson Lakshmana told the media that Prajwal Prasad was Kumaraswamy's social media coordinator in Delhi and “he had paid Rs 50,000 to media content creators Ritesh Pandey and Vinod Sharma for buying the mobiles and making the video”. Lakshmana claimed that the CCB police had traced the phones through their IMEI numbers.
A livid Kumaraswamy said a sting operation, which was “an internal political conspiracy within the Congress to discredit and embarrass Siddaramaiah”, was mischievously diverted towards him at the behest of Shivakumar and state Home Minister Priyank Kharge. He accused Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh of violating the rules while the investigation was ongoing and falsely trying to implicate him to “please his political bosses and save his chair”.
Though the Congress government and party in Karnataka are trying to shift the blame squarely on Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah himself appears to be convinced that it was “Congress leaders in Karnataka who are involved in organising a fake sting operation to tarnish his image”.
Siddaramaiah's Blunt Message to Rahul Gandhi
After participating in the Ramlila Maidan rally organised by the Congress in Delhi on Sunday, Siddaramaiah, accompanied by his son, Dr Yathindra, called on Rahul Gandhi on Monday. According to sources close to him, Siddaramaiah delivered a “blunt message” to Rahul Gandhi in a closed-door meeting, saying that despite his sacrifices for the party and his recent departure from the Chief Minister's chair in favour of Shivakumar, as instructed by the party leadership, “some people within the party were conspiring” against him. He also said the attack on him was “one of the biggest black marks in Karnataka politics” and did not augur well for the party.
He expressed his anger and unhappiness that, even with the Congress in power in Karnataka, the police were not pursuing the investigation with sufficient rigour “to identify those behind the sting operation and their motives”. He said the developments had “hurt” him and that if attempts to damage his image continued, he might take a tough stand and stay away from campaigning in the coming elections, including the 2028 Assembly polls. After giving a patient hearing, Rahul Gandhi reportedly assured Siddaramaiah that his concerns would be addressed and he need not worry.
It is evident that the growing rift between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar is already hurting the Congress in Karnataka, as in the recent Legislative Council polls – in which Siddaramaiah refused to campaign – the party failed to win even one of the four seats. The State Election Commission is scheduled to announce the dates in the next few days for state-wide elections to the Zilla, Taluk and Gram Panchayats and the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) area, which act as a barometer of prevailing public opinion.
With drought conditions prevailing in 226 out of 250 taluks across the state, farmers facing acute distress, and the threat of water and energy scarcity looming in the coming months, the Shivakumar government is in an unenviable situation. The steep increase in the prices of milk, curd, butter and ghee, and a 35% hike in bus fares to find resources to meet the burgeoning expenditure on the “five freebies”, have drawn sharp criticism from the people.
The opposition BJP and the JD(S), who are preparing to take on the Congress unitedly in all the coming elections, have launched an all-out attack on the government's “failures on all fronts”, besides gleefully watching the political slugfest in the ruling party.
(The author is a senior journalist)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
