UPDATE: Not resigned, Congress minister KN Rajanna sacked from Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet over voter list remarks

BENGALURU: Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna was sacked from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s cabinet on the instructions of the Congress high command, rather than him resigning from the ministerial position.

Initially, it was being said that Rajanna had resigned, but it later turned out that the party the high command had directed the CM to dismiss him from the cabinet itself. To avoid embarrassment, Rajanna had submitted his resignation letter to the CM through his son Rajendra, who is an MLC.

However, following the high command’s directive, the CM recommended to Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot that Rajanna be dismissed from the cabinet without accepting his resignation. Based on the CM’s recommendation, the governor issued a gazette notification dismissing Rajanna from the cabinet.

The development comes after last Friday’s rally in Bengaluru by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, where he doubled down on his “vote theft” charge that there was “collusion” between the Election Commission of India and the BJP to allow the creation of over one lakh “fake votes” in the Mahadevapura Assembly Segment in the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to ensure a win for the BJP.

Speaking to reporters in Tumkuru last Saturday, Rajanna questioned why Congress leaders ignored irregularities in voter lists and remained silent when they should have voiced their objections.

Meanwhile, Rajanna’s son and Congress leader Rajendra Rajanna, reacting to the resignation, said, “I don’t know what happened”. Rajanna on Monday resigned from the post after criticising his own  government over alleged vote theft. He had questioned his own party on the alleged voter list manipulation saying voter list revision was done during the Congress government’s tenure.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of ‘vote theft’ against the Election Commission of India (ECI), Rajanna had said, “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?”

“These irregularities did take place — that’s the truth. There is nothing false in this. These irregularities happened right in front of our eyes — we should feel ashamed. We didn’t take care of it at the time. That’s why we must be alert in the future. In Mahadevapura, there was indeed fraud. One person was registered in three different places and voted in all three. But when the draft electoral rolls are being prepared, we have to monitor it, right?. 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”. “We should have checked when the draft voter list was put out”, Rajanna had said.

Karnataka AICC in-charge general secretary Randeep Surjewal sent a video of Rajanna’s remarks to party general secretary K C Venugopal, in which Rajanna can be seen speaking in Tumakuru.

Following this, Rajanna tendered resignation on Monday, the day the legislature session started, under pressure from the Congress High Command. Questions are now being raised whether Rajanna’s statement against the party cost him his position.