BENGALURU, Sept. 22 -- Senior Congress MLA and former Karnataka minister H K Patil on Monday set October 10 as the deadline for the state government to declare Gadag district drought affected, saying he would decide on resigning his Assembly membership if the demand was not met.

Patil has written to Chief Minister D K Shivakumar alleging that officials have kept Gadag out of the drought declaration despite a 49% rainfall deficit and widespread crop failure. He said the issue would be raised during the ongoing three day special legislature session and that he would continue pressing the government until October 2 before deciding whether to resign.

"Through this three day session, I will try to put whatever political pressure on the gover...