Nine CBI cases pending, mining baron Janardhan Reddy returns to BJP fold

Former Karnataka minister G Janardhan Reddy, 57, who is accused in nine CBI cases linked to illegal mining from the 2008-2013 period — when the BJP was in power in the state — made a return to the party on Monday by merging his Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha party with the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The move is largely seen as an attempt by the BJP to offset the losses caused by the KRPP in a few districts of northern Karnataka in the 2023 state polls. Reddy is currently the sole MLA from the KRPP in the state.

Speaking to reporters after merging the KRPP with the BJP on Monday, Reddy said that he had offered to support the BJP but Union Home Minister Amit Shah insisted on a merger.

“Amit Shah told me that the question of external support does not arise. He reminded me that my political birth was in the BJP and asked me to return to the party,” he said, adding that he had to exit the BJP in the past “due to unavoidable situations”.

“The return of Janardhan Reddy gives the BJP immense strength for the Lok Sabha polls,” former Karnataka CM and BJP national executive member B S Yediyurappa said Monday.

Reddy’s return is expected to boost the BJP’s prospects in his old fiefdom of Ballari, an iron ore rich mining district, and its surrounding regions, especially in association with Reddy’s old associate B Sreeramulu, a BJP leader of a Scheduled Tribe (Valmiki Nayak) community which has a vast population in the impoverished area.

The money power of Janardhan Reddy as a mining baron and the popularity of Sreeramulu as an ST leader were key factors in BJP’s success in the Ballari, Raichur and Koppal districts in north Karnataka from 2004 to 2013 — before an illegal mining scam brought down the Reddy mining empire.

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