India’s Modi risks losing key state election over alleged sex scandal involving ex-PM’s grandson

The controversy surrounding Prajwal Revanna, former Indian prime minister Deve Gowda’s grandson, had been brewing for several months. It erupted this week after hundreds of videos showing his alleged sex crimes surfaced amid the country’s ongoing national elections, prompting authorities to initiate a special investigation.

Revanna is a member of the Janata Dal (Secular) Party, or JD(S), a regional party based in the southern Karnataka state that is partnering with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for this year’s parliamentary elections.

The scandal billowed because Modi had campaigned for Revanna this election season, but the BJP later distanced itself from the 33-year-old and denied any prior knowledge of his purported crimes.

Revanna reportedly flew to Germany a day after voting was held in his constituency on Friday.

India’s opposition Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, sister of the party’s de facto leader Rahul Gandhi, has slammed Modi’s conduct on the issue.

“The leader for whom Modi asked for votes in Karnataka, that person, mistreated thousands of women. I ask what our prime minister and home minister has to say about it?” she wrote in Hindi on the social media platform X on April 29.

Revanna has denied the allegations against him in a police complaint. A report in The Times of India newspaper on Tuesday said there is a possibility the videos supposedly showing Revanna were faked and leaked by a disgruntled party aide.

“At one level, the onus is also on the BJP to come out and address the issue. The prime minister had campaigned for Revanna,” said Sanjal Shastri, assistant professor at the western Indian city of Pune’s Flame University. “It is quite clear that the BJP is on the back foot.”

BJP leader Amit