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The scam-tainted Reddy brothers are back in Karnataka politics with one of them, and two of their close associates securing BJP tickets for the May 12 elections. BJP President Amit Shah had earlier said that the party’s association with the Reddy brothers was over and that they would not be associated with the elections any longer.
Gali Somashekhara Reddy, the younger brother of G Janardhana Reddy, has been named the BJP candidate for the Ballari Assembly seat. Somasekhara Reddy, who has represented Ballari in the Assembly earlier, is accused of bribing a judge in the cash-for-bail case that also involved Janardhan Reddy. The latter, a former Karnataka minister, is an accused in the 2011 illegal mining case.
Former Ballari MP B Sriramulu, who is a close associate of the Reddy brothers, will contest from Molakalamuru in Chitradurga district, while S N Krishnaiah Setty, co-accused in the mining case against former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, is the BJP nominee from Malur, Kolar district.
The Congress was quick to react, with its chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala saying Shah’s prophecy of the Yeddyurappa government being the most corrupt ever was coming true. At a recent press meet in Karnataka, Shah had, in a slip of the tongue, remarked that Yeddyurappa’s government was the most corrupt.
Sources in the BJP said Sriramulu and Somashekhara Reddy were given tickets as they had the best chance to win. “We are going by who can win the seat for us...and we believe that they already are the winners.”
MPs in the fray
The BJP has made an exception this time by awarding tickets to sitting MPs Sriramulu and Yeddyurappa. Sriramulu is a Scheduled Caste leader belonging to the minority Nayaka community, which has a strong following in northern and central Karnataka. The Nayaka community comprises 7 per cent of the State’s population.
The Reddy brothers began sending feelers to the BJP after the Siddaramaiah government decided to reopen the iron ore case, even after the CBI had closed it. The Congress had also engineered the defection of two loyalists of the Reddy brothers during party president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Ballari a few weeks ago.
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