Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was reportedly so infuriated by ousted Karnataka minister K. N. Rajanna's remarks on the party's ‘vote theft’ agitation that he instructed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah not to seek his resignation, but dismiss him from the Cabinet. Rajanna was sacked from the Siddharamaiah government on Monday after he attempted to deflate Rahul Gandhi's allegations regarding voter list tinkering in Karnataka's Mahdevpura. Rajanna said the alleged tinkering took place when Congress was in power and that the matter shoudl have been flagged while it was happening and not now.
Around 11 am on Monday, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal contacted Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and informed him that both Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wanted Rajanna's resgination, according to a report that appeared in Kannada news website Prajavani. Siddaramaiah said: "It's done".
However, the Chief Minister then contacted Rahul Gandhi and informed him that he would seek Rajanna's resignation after the session ended. But, Rahul wasn't convinced. "I don't want to seek his resignation, I want him to be dismissed from the Cabinet. How is it right for a minister to speak like this? He has been speaking like this from the first day the government came to power," Rahul told Siddaramaiah. He also told the CM that there was no need to talk to Rajanna about the decision.
The CM immediately rang up PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi and Home Minister G Parameshwara.After that he wrote a letter to the Governor informing him of the decision to drop K N Rajanna from the Cabinet.
The High Command took the decision without even consulting Siddaramaiah as Rahul Gandhi was embarrased by Rajanna's response. Rahul was also questioned by some MPs from Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party in the presence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. "Is it right that your party's minister in Karnataka dismissed our struggle. What message does this send to the people of the country?" the MPs questioned Rahul Gandhi.