Karnataka’s ₹187-crore mystery gets a cabinet encore
The BJP protested Nagendra’s re-induction. The Congress government defended it. The figures, meanwhile, refuse to sit still.
The case has produced several figures, but no published reconciliation of them.
The Congress government in Karnataka re-inducted B Nagendra into the cabinet on August 3, 2026, despite his resignation in June 2024 after allegations linked him to the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation case. The Enforcement Directorate later arrested him on July 12, 2024, in a money-laundering probe involving alleged misappropriation of ₹89.62 crore. Nagendra denies wrongdoing. [1]
The BJP staged a protest on August 24 and demanded his resignation. BJP leader R Ashoka alleged that ₹187 crore meant for Dalit development was diverted to fund Congress election activity. That specific allegation is not established by the material reviewed. The ED release refers to alleged election-related use of funds, but does not say the money was handed to the Congress party. [2][3]
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar defended the re-induction, saying Nagendra was not responsible and that an official report had found him uninvolved. The report itself has not been published in the material consulted. The case has produced figures of ₹187 crore, ₹94.73 crore and ₹89.62 crore at different stages. Karnataka’s Congress government has supplied confidence; it has not supplied reconciliation.