BJP demands removal of two ministers over Congress MLA’s allegations of corruption in Karnataka

A recent letter to Chief Minister DK Shivakumar by Congress MLA Ashok Kumar Rai, accusing two engineers of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited of collecting additional fees from contractors, stating that they must hand it over to the in-charge minister of Dakshina Kannada district and the minister of the department, has now seriously approached the BJP minister to sack the two senior officials.

At a press conference in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok urged the government to immediately remove the two ministers allegedly taking bribes and also hand over the probe to the CBI.

In the letter, Mr. Rai said that another 7% of the money is being collected from the suppliers in KRIDL, which is supposed to be given to these ministers and that the suppliers who have questioned this are being threatened.

Mr. Ashok alleged that after the Congress came to power, officials acted in an undisciplined manner and the government was running a “commission paradise”.

“If ₹100 is released, only ₹30 worth of work is done. The remaining 70% goes as commission. When we made the allegations, they asked for documents. Now the Congress MLA himself has talked about the commission,” he said.

It is estimated that around ₹800 crore may have been collected so far in the form of commission, he claimed.

Mr Ashok launched an attack on the Chief Minister for criticizing the BJP’s padayatra, saying it was “not political” and was thrown out to raise public awareness on issues like drought relief.

Published – 03 Sep 2026 01:17 IST