Bengaluru, Aug 11 (IANS) Karnataka Minister for Cooperation K.N. Rajanna has submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, sources confirmed on Monday. Sources informed Siddaramaiah is making last-minute efforts with the party high command to retain him. However, the high command is not accepting any explanation from Siddaramaiah and is reportedly upset over Rajanna’s remarks on the election “fraud” issue raised by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. Rajanna’s statement that the election “fraud” took place during the Congress rule in Karnataka and should have been addressed much earlier has angered the party’s national leadership. The high command has directed Siddaramaiah to accept Rajanna’s resignation and forward it to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s office immediately.

Sources confirmed that Siddaramaiah is holding a series of meetings at his office over the development. Minister Rajanna had earlier directly challenged Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and even stated in Delhi that he was ready to take over the post of party president from Shivakumar. He had also advocated for a Dalit Chief Minister in the event of a change of leadership in the state. Rajanna is considered a close confidant of Siddaramaiah. Earlier, Rajanna said, "I am not clinging to power. I will respond by evening." Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, R. Ashoka, stated on the floor of the House that Minister Rajanna had tendered his resignation two hours earlier.

On August 8, Rajanna had stated, "Rahul Gandhi has made statements backed by documents. He is speaking with authority, and we must endorse his statements -- there is no doubt about it. The BJP is well aware of the malpractices. The RSS, the frontal organisation of the BJP, is manipulating everything." "The common people are with us. In the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, voters have been enrolled without proper addresses. How is that even possible? During the parliamentary election, our government was in power -- we should have been more alert. Instead, we are alert only now. Had we acted earlier, we could have prevented these malpractices," Minister Rajanna said. "Out of the eight Assembly segments in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat, we had leads in seven. In only one -- Mahadevapura -- we did not. That single loss tilted the overall result. Isn’t that clearly due to malpractice?" he questioned.