Karnataka minister set to exit as Congress looks to preempt BJP, Governor

“Everybody in our party is a disciplined soldier, be it an MLA or a minister. All of them are very disciplined. This is what I can say,” Shivakumar said in a cryptic reference to Nagendra’s reported offer to resign.

On his part, Nagendra denied that he called the CM. “The reports currently being aired in the media are completely untrue. I have not received any call from the Chief Minister’s Office, and there has been no discussion regarding any resignation. I request your cooperation,” his office said in a statement.

However, the Congress dispensation’s bid to secure the resignation of Nagendra – who was inducted into the Shivakumar Cabinet on August 3 – is a clear shift from its stand during a disrupted monsoon session of the state Legislature when the party had claimed it would not relent on the BJP’s demand for his removal.

The Congress’s changed approach comes even as Governor Thawarchand Gehlot is likely to refer a CBI request for sanction to prosecute the Minister to the state Cabinet for its approval in the coming days.

While the BJP’s threat of stealing the new Congress CM’s thunder by launching a padayatra, coupled with the Governor’s possible move, could be the apparent motive for Nagendra’s offer to resign, the development may also facilitate changes in the Cabinet, which currently does not have any woman minister even as ex-CM Siddaramaiah has called for induction of an OBC leader.

The expected resignation of Nagendra, a Scheduled Tribe (ST) Valmiki Nayak leader from Ballari, may allow the Congress to replace him with Annapurna Tukaram in the Shivakumar Cabinet, who is a first time woman MLA from Ballari. She also belongs to the ST Valmiki Nayak community.

The minor Cabinet rejig may also involve the induction of a Siddaramaiah’s nominee – Byadgi MLA Basavaraj Shivappanavar or Bengaluru MLA M Krishnappa – into a remaining vacant slot.

Shivakumar is likely to visit Delhi on Thursday to meet the Congress top brass to discuss Nagendra’s resignation besides the need to fill up the vacant ministerial berth.

In the event of Nagendra’s resignation, it would be his second exit from the Congress Cabinet during its current tenure. Earlier, he had resigned from the then Siddaramaiah Cabinet in 2024 after being allegedly implicated in a Rs 94 crore fund diversion scam in the state Scheduled Tribes Development Board which fell under his purview as the ST welfare minister.

Nagendra’s inclusion in the Shivakumar Cabinet sprang a surprise while reflecting the Congress’s continued support for the influential tribal leader in the Ballari region, where the BJP had held sway in the past.

Washout of monsoon session

During the recent monsoon session of the Karnataka Legislature, the BJP put sustained pressure on the Congress for resignation of Nagendra, who was recently chargesheeted by the CBI over his alleged role, during the 2023-24 tenure as minister, in diversion of the ST Development Board’s funds.

The session was adjourned on August 24, three days ahead of schedule, after the Shivakumar government refused to relent on the BJP’s demand, maintaining that the CBI’s charges against Nagendra were not substantiated with evidence.

“There is nothing wrong in asking for the resignation of Minister B Nagendra in connection with the illegal transfer of funds of the Valmiki Development Corporation. But a notice should be given and a discussion should be held on this. An investigation has been conducted and a report has been received. The process of getting the money back is also on,” Shivakumar had stated in the Legislative Council on August 24.

“Various investigative agencies, including the CBI, have conducted investigations. So far, no documents have been received that directly show Nagendra to be guilty. In this context, he said, it would not be appropriate to disrupt the proceedings of the House without holding a debate,” the CM said.

After the session, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) R Ashoka led a delegation to Governor Gehlot to seek his intervention in securing Nagendra’s resignation.

“The case has not been closed. No clearance has been given. Instead, the investigation has progressed to the stage of filing a chargesheet. In such a situation, what moral justification does the government have for reinducting the same person into the Cabinet?” Ashoka asked. “The entire government is standing with Minister Nagendra because the Congress has a share in the Valmiki Development Corporation scam,” the BJP leader alleged.

On his part, while rejecting the case against him, Nagendra has alleged that the central agencies conspired to frame him, accusing the BJP, which rules the Centre, of targeting him for his backward origins. The BJP refused to debate the issue in the House “because a Dalit from the Adivasi community has become a minister again”, he claimed.

CBI case against Nagendra

The CBI has alleged that Nagendra had received a bribe of Rs 1.20 crore for awarding a tender of Rs 13.95 crore to private firms on behalf of the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation (KMVSTDC).

The CBI has alleged that K Srinivas Reddy, a beneficiary of tender contracts from the ST Welfare Board, transferred Rs 5.27 crore to Nekkanti Nagaraj, a close associate of Nagendra who in turn transferred Rs 1.20 crore to the latter through his relatives.

Nagendra was arrested by the ED in July 2024 after an investigation was launched by the Karnataka police into the siphoning of a total of Rs 94.73 crore funds deposited with the Union Bank of India’s M G Road branch in Bengaluru by the KMVSTDC to 18 accounts linked to a firm in Telangana.

A Karnataka SIT however did not name the bank officials and Nagendra in its chargesheet in the fraud case.

In October 2024, a special court for cases against elected representatives granted bail to Nagendra after ruling that the ED had not shown evidence of the minister receiving and using the stolen funds from the ST Development Board.

Nagendra’s journey

A rising tribal leader in Karnataka, Nagendra, 54, was inducted as a minister in the Congress Cabinet for the first time in May 2023 when the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government was formed.

During 2008-13, when he was BJP MLA from Kudligi, Nagendra was associated with the infamous Ballari illegal mining syndicate of former BJP minister G Janardhan Reddy. He then used to operate an iron ore trading firm, Eagle Traders and Logistics, which came under the scanner for export of illegal iron ore during a probe by the Karnataka Lokayukta and the CBI.

In his Assembly election affidavit in 2023, Nagendra stated that there were 26 cases related to alleged illegal mining pending against him, including four CBI cases. He also declared Rs 17 crore wealth in his affidavit.