Karnataka Minister K.N. Rajanna asked to resign: CMO sources

Karnataka Cooperation Minister K.N. Rajanna has been asked to resign, sources in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s office said on Monday (August 11, 2025).

“Rajanna has been asked to resign,” a top source in the Chief Minister’s office told PTI. Amid rumours of the resignation, Rajanna went into a huddle with the CM in the Vidhana Soudha.

There were reports that the Minister had been asked to resign by the party High Command following his claims that irregularities in voter lists occurred during the Congress-led tenure “right in front of our eyes”.

Addressing reporters in Tumkuru, Rajanna had asked why Congress leaders “turned a blind eye” over irregularities in voter lists and kept silent when they should have raised objections.

The Karnataka leader’s remarks come in the wake of the controversy that erupted after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged massive electoral fraud in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and said there are over 1 lakh fake votes in the electoral rolls in Bengaluru Central lok Sabha constituency.

Earlier today, state minister Rajanna sparked a row by saying that irregularities in the electoral rolls occurred while the Congress was in power. “Look, if we just start talking about such things casually, there will be different opinions. When was the voter list prepared? It was prepared when our own government was in power. At that time, was everyone just sitting quietly with eyes closed? If we speak casually, we’ll have to say many things,” Rajanna said.

He further agreed that electoral fraud did happen in Mahdevpura, the constituency segment Rahul Gandhi focused on in his press conference in August 7.

However, the Karnataka Minister said that the party which should have raised objections then had kept silent then and was talking about it now. “When the draft electoral rolls are made, we must file objections -- that is our responsibility. At that time, we kept quiet and now we are talking,” he added.

Rajanna, a Siddaramaiah loyalist, has been in the news for the past two months when he claimed that there will be an ‘August Revolution’, hinting at a major upheaval in the government.