Karnataka Congress in Crisis as Alleged Sting Operation Against Siddaramaiah Emerges

Four months after the change of guard in the Congress-led Karnataka government, which saw D K Shivakumar replacing Siddaramaiah as the Chief Minister in early June, the party has been reeling from a raging controversy over an alleged sting operation about the ex-CM. Both Siddaramaiah and his son Yathindra, a Minister in the Shivakumar Cabinet, have now openly hit out at the “fake sting video”, which they said was manufactured to tarnish the image of the Congress heavyweight. They also indicated Friday that some Congress insiders were allegedly involved in the filming of this purported sting video in 2023 by Power TV MD Rakesh Shetty, which emerged on social media and some local TV channels last month. While Shetty, considered close to Shivakumar, has been granted interim bail by a local Bengaluru court in the wake of the city police summoning him for interrogation, Yathindra alleged that some Congress people were hand in glove with him, pointing to a woman Congress worker who, he claimed, wanted the party ticket to contest from the Puttur seat in the 2023 Assembly polls. Yathindra said his father was upset by the episode. “After 40 years in public life he has not been tainted and this has happened at the end of his political career – he is naturally upset. However, truth is on our side and whatever allegation has been made, the truth will come out through an investigation,” he added. Congress discontent The Opposition BJP and its ally JD(S) have seized on the sting video row to fuel the simmering discontent within the Congress, especially since CM Shivakumar was allegedly linked in the past to a sex sting operation that led to the downfall of a BJP minister Ramesh Jarkiholi. “A coordinated operation was carried out to force Siddaramaiah out of the Chief Minister’s post. The Congress high command was also misled by those behind it (sting operation),” JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy recently said. He called Shivakumar the “king of stings” in Karnataka after the CM recently warned his Cabinet colleagues of possible sting operations to lure them and discredit the Congress government. As the sting controversy snowballed with Kumaraswamy projecting the Congress’s internal affairs in a poor light, Shivakumar claimed in an interview with a local Kannada TV channel that he had also been targeted for a suspected sting by an unidentified businessman who wore Meta glasses for a meeting with him. Kumaraswamy guns for CM In a bid to widen rifts between the factions of Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy has gone all out to capitalise on the sting issue. Expressing his backing for Siddaramaiah, he has asked him to speak out about it to prevent character assassination through rumours and insinuations. On Kumaraswamy’s offer of support to him, Siddaramaiah said Friday, “No one is standing for anyone. There is no need for anyone to stand up for me. The people and the whole state should know the truth. I have faith in the investigations and the probe should be done in a fair manner. Let the truth come out is my plea. We need to know who is behind this conspiracy.” Kumaraswamy has claimed that the Bengaluru police began investigating two workers of the JD(S) social media unit, Shankar and Mohan, after Siddaramaiah filed a complaint on October 6 with the Bengaluru cyber crime police station. Last week, Kumaraswamy staged protests at the offices of the Bengaluru police commissioner and the Karnataka director general of police for the arrest of Rakesh Shetty after the preliminary police probe into the uploading of the purported sting video on the newly created “Karnataka Honey Trap” YouTube channel pointed to a possible role of the JD(S) social media team in it. Kumaraswamy has also threatened protests if his party workers were arrested in the case. Siddaramaiah’s complaint In the police complaint filed by Siddaramaiah on October 6, unidentified creators of the Karnataka Honey Trap channel have been named as the accused in the spread of the purported sting video. “On 27-09-2026, some unknown persons made false, malicious… allegations against the complainant on YouTube channel, secretly filmed a (clandestine) video on the social media platform, published the video on YouTube and circulated it publicly, causing damage to the public honor and life of the complainant, and an investigation should be conducted against the persons who created it with malicious intent and disseminated it on YouTube,” states the FIR registered on the basis of Siddaramaiah’s complaint. On October 13, a local Bengaluru court, while granting a temporary injunction against the broadcasting and publication of the “fake sting video” on Siddaramaiah’s plea, noted that “the recording purports to show two men and a woman in a conversation presented as a secret or hidden-camera interaction. The woman is prompted through a series of questions to make grave allegations relating to an alleged incident in or around the year 2011.” In his plea, Siddaramaiah stated: “The extraordinary delay, the manner of questioning, the hidden-camera presentation and the politically loaded caption, followed by sudden digital publication, disclose a calculated and malicious design to cause maximum injury to my reputation and political standing.”