Karnataka BJP leader arrested in Anna Bhagya rice theft case: Who is Manikanth Rathod?

The Karnataka police on Wednesday arrested state BJP leader Manikanth Rathod in connection with alleged theft of rice meant for the Anna Bhagya scheme.

Under this scheme of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government, 10 kg of food grains are given to every member of the economically weaker section (EWS) families every month.

According to the police, 6,077 quintals of rice worth more than Rs 2 crore was stolen from the government warehouse in Shahapur of Yadgir district in 2022.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a police officer said that Rathod did not respond to several notices issued to him for appearing before the investigation team.

Rathod, a BJP functionary from the Kalaburagi district, had contested the 2023 state Assembly election on the party ticket against Priyank Kharge, the son of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge. Priyank, who defeated Rathod in the election, is currently the Minister for Electronics, Information Technology, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet.

Rathod had made news in the run-up to the Assembly polls, held in May 2023, with the Congress alleging that he was “hatching a plot to murder” Mallikarjun Kharge and his family.

At the time, the AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, had released an audio clip of a purported conversation between Rathod and a local BJP leader in which Rathod was heard saying that he would “finish off” the wife and children of Kharge.

Rathod had rejected the Congress’s allegation as “baseless” and “a lie”, calling the audio clip “fake”. Rathod, 27, hails from the Gurmitkal belt, which had been a stronghold of Mallikarjun Kharge.

He has been known for his criminal track record marked with multiple cases that