Political row again in Ballari seat over mining baron Reddy’s role

GALI JANARDHAN REDDY’S BROTHERS AND AIDE, B SREERAMULU, CONTESTED THE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

BENGALURU: Every election in Karnataka’s Ballari district has witnessed the direct or indirect involvement of controversial mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy over the last decade. The November 3 by-election to the Ballari Lok Sabha seat is no different. Like in the assembly elections in May, the Congress has again targeted Reddy, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state minister, to discredit his aides contesting the polls.

Reddy’s brothers and aide, B Sreeramulu, contested the assembly elections. Now Sreeramulu’s sister, J Shantha, is contesting the seat her brother vacated after being elected to the assembly. Shantha is pitted against VS Ugrappa, the Congress-janata Dal (Secular) coalition candidate.

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah l ast week attacked Reddy, who is an accused in illegal mining cases, and Sreeramulu. He said the duo did not know about the special status accorded to the backward Hyderabad-karnataka region, where the district is located under the Constitution’s Article 371 J for reservation to the residents in education, jobs, and promotions.

Reddy claimed some sources within the state’s intelligence department had advised him to be alert as Karnataka’s CongressJanata Dal (Secular) alliance government was gunning for him.

A BJP leader declined to comment on whether Reddy was a part of the party.

The mining baron said the Congress had decided to attack him every single day to discredit his close friend Sreeramulu. “Siddaramaiah keeps saying I looted money. But in his five-year tenure as chief minister he could not prove what it was that I had done,” he said.