The Bahujan Samaj Party’s only minister in the Karnataka government resigned from the Cabinet on Thursday, PTI reported. N Mahesh held the state primary and secondary education portfolio.

The Times of India quoted him as saying that he quit in order to focus on his Assembly constituency Kollegal and to strengthen the BSP ahead of Lok Sabha elections. “There had been a campaign against me in my constituency that I have camped in Bengaluru and was not focusing on Kollegal,” he said. “Also, there was a need to strengthen the party base ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.”

Mahesh said he had resigned because of personal reasons. “I do not have any grouse against anybody in the government,” he added.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy that Mahesh’s resignation was an internal decision of the BSP. “I do not know know why he has taken that kind of decision,” ANI quoted him as saying. “But I am in contact with them, I will sort it out.”

Last week, Mahesh had said he would walk out of the ruling alliance with the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) if party chief Mayawati asked him to, reported India Today. Mahesh made the comment after Mayawati said the Bahujan Samaj Party would not ally with the Congress for the November-December Assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Mahesh has accused the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the JD(S) of being casteist parties. “I am openly saying this, cadres and workers of the BJP, the Congress and the Janata Dal do not understand our ideology,” he said last week. “They do not even want to understand. This is because, as long as there is caste politics, the BJP and Congress will continue to exist. The day caste is removed from this society, we will have the BSP in power. I am saying this out of my experience.”