Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah fires Naseer Ahmed as political secretary amid Davangere South bypoll 'sabotage' row

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has let go of his political secretary Naseer Ahmed, who is accused of working against the Congress during the April 9 Davangere South bypoll.

Ahmed, an MLC, was appointed as Siddaramaiah’s political secretary in June 2023. The notification appointing him to that post has been withdrawn. Accordingly, Ahmed has been “relieved from the post with immediate effect,” a new notification by the protocol wing of the department of personnel & administration reforms has said. 

It is said that Siddaramaiah fired Ahmed based on a directive from the Congress high command. On Monday evening, Congress’ Muslim workers from Kolar visited Ahmed’s residence and urged him not to quit.

Last week, Congress MLC Abdul Jabbar quit as the chairperson of the party’s minorities department.

Ahmed, Jabbar and Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan have been accused of working against the party during the Davangere South bypoll. They wanted a Muslim to get the ticket, which was given to late veteran Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s grandson Samarth.

There is speculation that Zameer may also face action by way of being dropped from the Cabinet.

With this, Siddaramaiah is left without any political secretaries. Congress MLC K Govindaraj was fired as the CM’s political secretary in June 2025 in the wake of the stampede outside the Chinnaswamy stadium that killed 11 persons.