New Delhi: Former BJP leader Gali Janardhana Reddy’s comeback to politics proved to be successful Saturday, with the mining baron winning in the Gangawati seat in Karnataka’s Koppal district with 66,213 votes.
Reddy defeated his nearest rival, the Congress’s Iqbal Ansari, by a margin of 8,266 votes.
Reddy, who has been banned from entering Ballari according to his bail conditions in an illegal mining case, floated a new party in December last year after his fallout with the BJP. The party, called the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP), had fielded 37 candidates in these elections, mostly in the Hyderabad Karnataka belt. The party’s symbol is a football.
Reddy’s wife, Gali Lakshmi Aruna, who was contesting on a KRPP ticket from his bastion of Bellary city, lost the seat. Against her was Reddy’s own brother, Gali Somasekhara Reddy, who was contesting on a BJP ticket. The seat, however, went to Nara Bharath Reddy, who won with 86,440 votes.
Janardhan Reddy’s other brother, Gali Karunakara Reddy, who contested from the Harapanahalli seat, lost to independent candidate Latha Mallikarjun by 13,845 votes.
The Reddy brothers are somewhat of an institution in Ballari. The district’s reputation as a billionaire’s district has been largely built by the three Reddy brothers.
Sons of an Andhra Pradesh police constable, they moved to Ballari in the 80s and eventually entered the iron-ore mining business in 2001, when they set up the Obulapuram Mining Company. Business roared during the 2004-06 mining boom and they reportedly minted huge amounts of money by exporting iron ore to countries like China. However, the Reddy’s mines came under the scanner of the Karnataka Lokayukta in 2011, and were thereafter investigated by the CBI for alleged illegal mining and exporting of iron ore from the area.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)