K’taka minister to resign as Opposition mounts pressure

BENGALURU: Embattled Karnataka minister KS Eshwarappa announced his resignation on Thursday, a day after he was charged for abetment of suicide of a contractor who alleged in his suicide note that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader demanded bribes from him.

The 73-year-old influential leader’s resignation came after days of pressure from both the Opposition and within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Eshwarappa, the minister for rural development and panchayat raj, has repeatedly said that he never met the contractor, Santosh Patil, who was found dead in a Udupi hotel on Tuesday.

“Under the government led by Basavaraj Bommai, I have worked as a minister till today. Today, I have made a decision that I will resign from the post of minister tomorrow (Friday),” Eshwarappa said on Thursday evening in Shivamogga.

“In such issues, those who have helped me grow, senior, to the chief minister and national leaders no one should feel embarrassed. For this one reason, I am resigning,” he added.

Patil, a contractor and BJP worker, had blamed Eshwarappa and his aides for forcing him to take the extreme step in his purported suicide note. The minister’s aides repeatedly demanded 40% commission to clear bills for a pending project, the note alleged.

Since then, pressure has mounted on Eshwarappa to resign with the Opposition using the issue to take on the government, barely a year before assembly elections in 2023.

“He (Eshwarappa) spoke to me this evening. He has thought about this a lot. He said that he has complete confidence that I have no role or mistake in this. I have morality. But if I continue (as minister), it will give an opportunity for others to talk which is not needed. He said do the investigation and the truth will come out. I will come out clean and will not be in this position until then,” Bommai said on Thursday, adding that there was “no pressure” from the BJP high command.

The incident comes at a time when the BJP government is battling several corruption charges, including laundering ill-gotten money using crypto currencies like Bitcoin, contractors’ association members alleging that political leaders and officials demand up to 40% commission to award public works, which have tarnished the record of Bommai, who took over as CM in July.

With assembly elections about a year away, Opposition parties are trying to turn Patil’s death into a major electoral issue.

Eshwarappa, one of the seniormost leaders of the BJP in Karnataka, has been embroiled in several controversies in the recent past. On February 9, he said the saffron (bhagwa) flag should replace the Tricolour; on February 21, he violated curfew orders and carried out a funeral procession of Harsha Jingade, better known as Harsha Hindu, after which rightwing groups went on a rampage, targeting Muslim neighbourhoods in Shivamogga.

He had remained defiant but political pressure and the police case against him might have weighed against him. The First

Information Report (FIR), a copy of which is with HT, listed Eshwarappa, as accused number 1 (A1) in the case, while his aides Basavaraj and Ramesh as A2 and A3 respectively. The FIR, which was filed 11 pm on Tuesday by a relative of the deceased, Prashanth Patil, said Patil and other contractors completed road work in Belagavi in 2020-21 on Eshwarappa’s assurance that he would foot the bill. But when Patil and others met Eshwarappa and his associates Ramesh and Basavaraj requesting that bills of ₹4 crore be cleared, they demanded 40% commission, the FIR added.

The body of Patil was found on Tuesday morning. On Monday night, in a WhatsApp message, he told associates and some reporters that Eshwarappa was directly responsible for his death. Patil had earlier also said that the minister was seeking 40% commission, adding to the piling corruption charges against the BJP administration.

The issue provided ammunition to Opposition parties, especially the Congress, to attack the Bommai government. On Thursday, Congress leaders were detained while on their way to Bommai’s house. “He (Eshwrappa) has said that he will give it tomorrow evening but he never keeps his word,” said DK Shivakumar, state Congress unit chief.

The Congress demanded that Eshwarappa be booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and arrested at the earliest.

PTI Congress leaders during a protest rally against KS Eshwarappa, in Bengaluru on Thursday.