A litre of toned milk that cost ₹37 in Karnataka now costs ₹54 — a 39% jump in just 3.5 years. Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday, 30 October 2026, fired a sharp political broadside at the Congress-led Karnataka government, accusing it of burdening ordinary households through successive hikes in Nandini milk prices while simultaneously claiming credit for welfare guarantees.

Posting in Kannada on X, Joshi cited what he described as four discrete hikes in Nandini toned milk since Congress assumed power in the state: +₹3 in July 2023, +₹2 in June 2024, +₹4 in March 2025, and now +₹8 in November 2026, taking the cumulative rise to ₹17 per litre. The minister also pointed to ghee prices, which he said climbed from ₹610 per litre to ₹715 per litre — a rise of ₹105 — over the same period.

The Nandini Price Ladder Since 2023

Nandini is the flagship brand of the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation (KMF), the state's dominant dairy cooperative and a household name across Karnataka. KMF periodically revises prices citing input costs — fodder, procurement rates paid to farmers, and logistics — making it a politically sensitive pressure point for any government in Bengaluru.

The Congress government took office in May 2023 after sweeping the assembly elections on a platform of five welfare guarantees, including free electricity units and cash transfers to women. Joshi's attack cuts directly at that narrative: 'ಒಂದು ಕೈಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟು, ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಕೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಲೆ ಏರಿಕೆಯ ಮೂಲಕ ಕಿತ್ತುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದೆ' — 'giving with one hand, taking back through price hikes with the other.'

BJP's Centre-State Inflation Playbook

The exchange is textbook Centre-state political sparring on inflation. As Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Joshi occupies a portfolio that tracks essential commodity prices across the country, giving him institutional standing to highlight state-level decisions. The BJP, which lost Karnataka in 2023, has consistently sought to frame the Congress government's fiscal choices as fiscally reckless.

Karnataka households spend a significant share of their daily food budget on milk and dairy. A ₹8-per-litre hike on toned milk — the variant most widely consumed by middle- and lower-income families — lands hardest on urban renters and rural households that do not own dairy cattle and cannot absorb the cost through home production.

What Karnataka's Government and KMF Have Not Yet Said

As of the time of posting, neither the Karnataka government nor KMF had issued a formal response to Joshi's post or a public rationale for the November 2026 revision. Cooperatives typically justify hikes by pointing to rising procurement prices paid to dairy farmers — an argument that reframes the increase as pro-farmer rather than anti-consumer. Whether the state government deploys that defence, or whether the central Consumer Affairs Ministry initiates any formal review, will determine whether this political exchange escalates or dissipates.

For Karnataka's millions of Nandini consumers, the accounting is already done: what cost ₹37 in mid-2023 will cost ₹54 from November. Governance, the minister argues, should shield families from that arithmetic — not accelerate it.