A viral audio clip alleging that 80 percent of ministerial posts in Karnataka's DK Shivakumar-backed Congress government were allocated in exchange for payments to the party high command has drawn a sharp political broadside from BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Friday, August 7, 2026 — and the former Union Minister has trained his fire not just on the allegation, but on the reinstatement of a minister who once resigned over a welfare-fund scam.

The viral clip and the 'chadawa' charge

Thakur's post, written in Hindi, opens with a punishing line: 'Chadawa sanskriti hi Congress ka asli chaal, charitra aur chehra hai' — 'The culture of offerings is Congress's true gait, character, and face.' The reference to chadawa (a devotional offering made at a shrine) is deliberately loaded, casting the alleged pay-to-play cabinet formation as a transactional ritual rather than democratic governance.

The BJP MP cites what he describes as a 'viral discussion among Congress leaders in Karnataka' as the basis for the 80 percent figure. The research record flags this specific claim as unverified and not established from public record. Thakur does not name a source for the audio, but frames it as Congress leaders speaking among themselves — making it, in his telling, an admission rather than an accusation.

Nagendra, the Valmiki scheme, and the return to cabinet

The sharpest edge of Thakur's post is reserved for MLA Nagendra, who had previously resigned from the Siddaramaiah cabinet after being named as an accused in a case involving alleged misappropriation of funds from the Valmiki Corporation welfare scheme — a programme designed specifically to benefit the Valmiki Dalit community of Karnataka. Thakur alleges that Nagendra has now been reinstated as a minister.

The Valmiki scheme controversy had already made national headlines when it first surfaced, with allegations that funds earmarked for one of Karnataka's most marginalised communities had been siphoned off. A minister stepping down over such charges — and then returning to the same cabinet — is the kind of sequence Thakur is using to argue that the 'chadawa' logic explains what merit and accountability cannot.

The question Thakur is putting to the Congress high command

Thakur closes with a pointed demand for transparency, asking Congress to clarify: who received the alleged payments, where they went, how much was involved, and what share reached the party's central leadership. 'Congress must come clean on this,' he writes. It is a framing designed to push the controversy upward — from a state cabinet reshuffle to a question about the national party's internal economy of power.

The BJP has consistently used Karnataka — where Congress won a decisive majority in 2023 — as a proving ground for its 'Congress = corruption' narrative heading into future electoral cycles. Thakur's post fits that pattern precisely, but the reinstatement of a minister facing a Dalit welfare-fund case gives the attack a concrete, human-interest anchor that goes beyond standard political sparring.

Whether Karnataka's Congress government responds with a rebuttal, a clarification on Nagendra's legal status, or simply waits for the news cycle to move on will shape how far this particular charge travels.