B. Nagendra quits the Karnataka Cabinet 25 days after his return

Planning and Statistics Minister B. Nagendra announced his resignation on Friday at Vidhana Soudha, 25 days after D.K. Shivakumar brought him back into the Cabinet. He later handed the letter to the Chief Minister. Shivakumar said he would take a decision on Saturday after speaking to the Congress high command.

Nagendra is the first minister to leave since Shivakumar took office on 3 June. He is a four-time MLA from Ballari Rural, a Scheduled Tribe reserved seat. He had already resigned once over the same file, on 6 June 2024, when he held the Scheduled Tribes Welfare, Youth Empowerment and Sports portfolio under Siddaramaiah.

He was sworn in again on 3 August. The BJP and JD(S) spent the monsoon session demanding that he leave. They pointed to a CBI chargesheet on alleged diversion of funds from the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation. Governor Thawarchand Gehlot has given sanction for prosecution.

What the minister said

Speaking to reporters with ministers Ajay Singh and Rizwan Arshad and MPs Nasir Hussain and G.C. Chandrashekar beside him, Nagendra said he was stepping down of his own will. He said he did not want the controversy to embarrass the party or the government. He denied any role in the alleged embezzlement.

He accused the BJP of an “anti-tribal mindset” and of painting him guilty because he belongs to a backward tribal community. He also said the Opposition had blocked the Assembly session. He asked the party to let him resign as an MLA and face a by-election in Ballari Rural.

He told the press that Shivakumar had asked him not to go. He said he had decided after talks in Delhi with the central leadership, including meetings around Rahul Gandhi. He broke down while speaking and said a lie had been repeated until it passed for truth.

The money and the case

Public accounts of the alleged shortfall differ. Some reports put the Valmiki Corporation figure near Rs 89 crore. Others speak of a larger Rs 187 crore file. The chargesheet itself is with the CBI. The corporation was meant to fund schemes for Scheduled Tribe communities. The alleged period covers Nagendra’s earlier stint as ST welfare minister in 2023-24.

The case is not a conviction. Nagendra has not been found guilty in court. The political pressure came from the combination of a central agency chargesheet, gubernatorial sanction, and a legislature that could not complete ordinary business while the Opposition pressed for his exit.

What the BJP takes from it

The Hindu reported that BJP national president Nitin Nabin congratulated Leader of the Opposition R. Ashok after the resignation. State BJP strategists had worried that Shivakumar would be harder to pin than Siddaramaiah. They now treat the exit as their first clean result against the new ministry.

Party workers plan to keep pressure on other files: irregularities alleged in Karnataka Public Service Commission recruitments, the government’s drought response, the Bidadi township project, and toll collection on the NICE corridor. JD(S) is expected to join those campaigns.

What happens next

Shivakumar has not accepted the letter yet. A refusal would keep Nagendra in office and reopen the session fight. Acceptance would force a Cabinet vacancy and, if the MLA resignation is also taken, a by-election in Ballari Rural. That seat is ST reserved. Nagendra has invited the BJP to contest him there.

The timing matters for the Congress. Shivakumar has been in the job for less than three months. Losing a tribal face from Ballari, a district with a long mining and reservation history, is a political cost even if the legal case is still untried. Keeping him would have a different cost: daily disruption in the House and a running charge that the new chief minister put a chargesheeted colleague back in office.

Saturday’s consultation with the high command will decide which of those costs the party prefers to carry.