BENGALURU: Former Karnataka Minister and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, who had quit the BJP and floated Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) ahead of last year’s Assembly elections in the state, will return to the saffron party on Monday morning.
Reddy, an MLA from Gangavathi, today merged his KRPP with the BJP as he, along with wife Aruna Lakshmi and some family members, joined the party in the presence of its veteran leader and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, state President B Y Vijayendra, and others.
However, in the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls he had extended support to the Congress candidate.
Calling it a "home coming", Reddy explained that the move to merge KRPP with the BJP is to "strengthen Narendra Modi's hands and make him the Prime Minister third time".
An important meeting of KRPP was held at Reddy’s residence on Sunday in which prominent leaders of the party gave their nod for Reddy to rejoin the BJP.
According to informed sources, the prime mover behind Reddy rejoining the BJP is Yediyurappa, who understands that the former minister returning to the saffron party will give the party the required boost in several constituencies where KRPP had managed to poll a considerable number of votes in last year’s Assembly elections. Some of the candidates of KRPP managed to win 20,000-30,000 votes in last year’s polls.
Reddy had recently met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
"Amit Shah had invited me to Delhi and told me that -- there is no question of extending outside support (KRPP supporting BJP in LS polls) and instead I should join the BJP and work for it, as I took my political birth in the party. Accepting it, I'm joining the party," he said.
Praising Yediyurappa and the leader's contribution in his political growth, Reddy said he is happy that he will be working in the party now with the veteran leader's son Vijayendra.
"I will work as a common party worker along with other leaders under the leadership of Vijayendra. I have not come with any conditions or expectations. Whatever responsibility the party gives me, I will honestly work. BJP was always there in my blood, but due to some reasons I had gone out, but today I feel I have come back to my mother's lap. Looking at my brothers here, I don't feel like I'm coming back to the BJP office after 13 years," he added.
Welcoming Reddy back into the party, Vijayendra said his joining will strengthen BJP in the Kalyana Karnataka region.
Before the assembly polls last year, Reddy had been largely politically inactive for nearly 12 years since his arrest by the CBI for an alleged role in a mining scam.
During this period, he had a brief stint ahead of the 2018 assembly polls when he campaigned for his close friend and former Minister B Sriramulu in Molakalmuru Assembly segment.
In the run up to the 2018 assembly polls, the then BJP national president Amit Shah, in response to a reporter's question, had distanced the party from him and stressed that "the BJP has nothing to do with Janardhana Reddy."
Accused in a multi-crore illegal mining case, he has been out on bail since 2015.
Several conditions were imposed by the apex court in its order which includes prohibiting him from visiting Ballari in Karnataka and Ananthpur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.
Because of these restrictions, he had to contest the 2023 Assembly polls from Gangavati in Koppal district.
Expressing his displeasure about the way BJP had ignored him, Reddy had announced a new party last year and also took a dig at his brothers -- Karunakara Reddy and Somashekar Reddy -- and Sriramulu, as they remained with the BJP.
The three of them had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls, with Reddy's new party said to have impacted their performance in the election.
Sriramulu, a ST community leader and former Minister is now the BJP's candidate from the Bellary (Ballari) Lok Sabha constituency.
Reddy had played an instrumental role in strengthening the BJP in the Ballari district and is still believed to enjoy considerable clout there as well as in adjoining districts like Chitradurga, Koppal and Raichur, which could be useful for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
Reddy and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy, managing director of Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC), were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011.
The company is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Ballari Reserve Forest area, spread over Ballari in Karnataka and the Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Reddy first came to political limelight during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, when he campaigned for BJP leader, the late Sushma Swaraj, who had contested against Congress' Sonia Gandhi from Ballari.
Former Congress Minister T John's son Thomas John also joined the BJP today.
(With inputs from Express News Service)
