BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: The BJP, finding it uneasy to deal with the allegations of sexual abuse by suspended JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna, has distanced itself from the case. While some party leaders said that they were helpless with the choice of candidate being an internal party matter for the ally, there’s a worry about how this might affect the party’s chances in Karnataka as well as among its key electorate of women voters.
Leaders of the party said that visuals of the PM praising the accused even after the local BJP unit wrote against him has not gone down well, with Opposition parties raising the issue. Union home minister Amit Shah, too, issued a clarification during his press conference in Guwahati on Tuesday.
A senior party leader and MP from the state told DH, on conditions of anonymity, that choosing the candidate was not in the hands of the BJP. “He is a member of the family of a former prime minister, so it was not our decision to field him,” the lawmaker said.
On the letter of local BJP leader Devaraj Gowda to the home minister sent in December, the MP said that the party deals with several such letters.
The leaders of the BJP have publicly distanced itself, especially after former CM and the accused’s uncle HD Devegowda distancing himself and the party suspending him. “The former CM has in fact said that those who drink salt will have to drink water. This is a JDS issue, it is not a BJP issue. We are with nari shakti and HM Shah has made the party’s stand clear,” BJP Karnataka leader CT Ravi said.
Even as it has been facing flak for not supporting the women wrestlers in the Brij Bhushan Sharma case, the BJP feels that the Opposition’s raining of the issue continuously could have an effect. “The Congress is also trying to deflect from the death of Neha Hiremath, the daughter of their own counsellor, in a case of love jihad. The case has a resonance in coastal Karnataka and the Congress is facing the heat in this belt. The Congress is forgetting its own horror cases like tandoor murder and Bhanwari Devi,” an union minister from Karnataka said.
Sources in the party said that clear instructions have gone out to not be seen defending the accused in any platform. Another leader from the state said that the alliance is for only 4 seats and the BJP can’t be seen putting the other seats in HBS state in jeopardy.