Reddy, who floated a new party in December last year after fallout with the BJP, defeated his nearest rival, the Congress’s Iqbal Ansari, by a margin of 8,266 votes.
Mining baron helped BJP form its first govt in the South and dominated state politics for years, but has now been arrested in a Rs 600-crore Ponzi scam case.
Once a Congress stronghold, Ballari saw Sonia Gandhi beat Sushma Swaraj before the controversial Reddy brothers delivered the seat to BJP for 14 years.
BJP hopes Janardhan Reddy, who faces more charges than most politicians, will deliver most of the 23 seats in his territory — 10% of the assembly’s strength.
Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde in his 466-page report detailed the mining scam in Karnataka’s Ballari district which cost the state an estimated Rs 16,085 crore.
Since their rise in 2008, the Reddys have promised to convert Ballari into one of India’s most progressive cities, but nothing has changed on the ground so far.
In Episode 1544 of CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta looks at some top economists pointing to the pitfalls of ‘currency nationalism’ with data from 1991 to 2004.
Among 19 Indian firms sanctioned by US Treasury Dept was Lokesh Machines Ltd accused of coordinating with 'Russian defence procurement agent to import Italy-origin CNC machines'.
While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.
COMMENTS