BENGALURU: Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, who’s tour of various districts is in full swing, announced on Wednesday that he will announce his Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP) party manifesto and probable candidates after January 16.
“Given the response I have been receiving from people, I am confident that I can show the strength of KRPP,’’ he told reporters in Koppal while replying to Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s reported remark that no regional outfits launched in Karnataka have stood the test of time.
Reddy and his wife Aruna Lakshmi have also been visibly trying to woo Muslim and Kuruba communities from Gangavathi to Ballari Assembly segments as soon as they launched the party, apparently targeting the traditional vote bank of the Congress. Reddy has also been cosying up to second-rung leaders in the Kalyana Karnataka Region and his birthday, slated to be held in Gangavati on January 11, is expected to give him a breakthrough.
His former aide and Transport Minister B Sriramulu had stated that Reddy’s KRPP will make no dent in the BJP. Senior BJP leaders are also of the same opinion believing that KRPP will instead eat into the Congress vote share, BJP sources said.As the ruling BJP, led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, is facing anti-incumbency, the party’s prospects in the 2023 Assembly polls are not bright, a leader said. But with regional political outfits such as JD(S), the SDPI, AIMIM and AAP among others likely to garner considerable ‘secular votes’, the BJP stands a chance to form the government once again in 2023, observed a political pundit