NEW DELHI (AFP) - The scandal-tainted chief minister of an Indian state on Thursday offered to quit following charges he was involved in a $3.6-billion mining fraud, his party told AFP. A spokesman for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in the capital New Delhi that B.S. Yeddyurappa, head of the BJP government in the state of Karnataka, would resign. The BJP leadership earlier Thursday "unanimously decided" for a change in the BJP leadership in the resource-rich southern state. "From what I believe is that he has offered to resign but has not actually handed over his resignation to the Karnataka governor," BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudi told AFP. "He is toying around with different ideas," the spokesman said, referring to Yeddyurappa's own search for a successor to the post. "But he has reconciled to the fact that he has to resign," Rudi added. Yeddyurappa was named Wednesday in a report published by the southern state's ombudsman who was investigating corrupt mining practices. Judge Santosh Hegde accused the chief minister of enabling illicit mining of iron ore in Karnataka, which cost the public exchequer 160.8 billion rupees ($3.6 billion) between 2006 and 2010. He recommended the prosecution of Yeddyurappa under the Prevention of Corruption Act for his "direct involvement" in the scam. The mining graft is the latest in a slew of corruption scandals in India, which is still reeling from the allegedly fraudulent sale of telecom licences in 2008 estimated to have cost the country up to $40 billion. Meanwhile, India's cabinet approved a new anti-corruption bill on Thursday that aims to create a powerful new ombudsman tasked with investigating endemic graft in the public sector. Under the proposed law, citizens would be able to approach the ombudsman with complaints about corrupt officials, including federal ministers and senior bureaucrats who are shielded under India's current laws. Information Minister Ambika Soni said the ombudsman would be picked from the highest levels of the judiciary and be supported by eight other officials who would be from the judiciary or be people of "impeccable integrity."