BANGALORE: Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna on Monday resigned on the opening day of the two-week legislative session.
He was relieved of his responsibilities as Cooperation minister and as District Minister of Hassan and Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda was given charge of Hassan.
Party sources said the Congress High Command had been unhappy with Rajanna ever since he remarked, days ago, that the state’s voter lists were prepared when the Congress was in power — a statement seen as indirectly accepting blame in the ongoing electoral rolls controversy and contradicting the party’s central charge against the BJP in its “vote theft” campaign.
Rajanna, a three-term MLA from Madhugiri and a prominent ST leader, was seen hurrying to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah before tendering his resignation. “I have not attached myself to any position,” he told reporters before entering the CM’s office.
This is not the first time Rajanna’s comments have embarrassed the party. Earlier this year, he created a storm in the legislature by claiming there had been an attempt to honey-trap him — a sensational allegation that grabbed national headlines and forced the Congress into damage-control mode. At the time, speculation was rife that he would be dropped from the cabinet, but his closeness to Siddaramaiah helped him weather the crisis.
“This time, no one could save him,” a senior Congress functionary said, adding that his latest remarks had eroded his standing with both the state leadership and the High Command.
Rajanna, 74, has long been considered a Siddaramaiah loyalist. His exit marks the second resignation by an ST minister from the cabinet in recent past, following B. Nagendra’s departure over the Valmiki Corporation fraud case.
On Monday evening, Governor’s Principal Secretary R. Prabhushankar, in a note to Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh, wrote: “I am directed to forward herewith the original notification signed by the Governor for removal of K. N. Rajanna, Minister for Cooperation, from the Council of Ministers with immediate effect, for further necessary action.