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‘Can be CM if I want’: Ex-min sparks speculation
A video of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Gali Janardhana Reddy saying that he can become the state chief minister if he applies his heart to it, has surfaced on social media platforms
A video of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Gali Janardhana Reddy saying that he can become the state chief minister if he applies his heart to it, has surfaced on social media platforms.
Reddy is the alleged kingpin of the illegal iron ore mining scandal in Bellary.
“Whether it is Somashekar Reddy, Karunakar Reddy, me or Sriramulu, we have no need for money. I have no wish to become a minister or chief minister. If I make up my mind, I can become the chief minister.For that a time will come and I am waiting for it,” Reddy is heard saying in the video. HT has seen the video.
The statements have fuelled the speculation of Reddy’s possible return to active politics after over a decade of being forced to stay away since the illegal iron ore scandal became public and led to the fall of the first ever BJP government in Karnataka.
“He was addressing some of his followers at the birthday party celebrations of Somashekar Reddy (on Tuesday) in Ballari at Classic Function hall,” said one person associated with the former minister, requesting not to be named.
“It was a statement just to keep the hearts of the followers and workers. Until now there has been no discussions that he will contest the elections and nobody from the BJP or anywhere has reached out to us. He just said that if he wants, he can become the chief minister. There is nothing more to it,” Somashekar Reddy, the BJP legislator and Janardhana Reddy’s brother, said on Wednesday.
“There has been no decision so far to reach out to Reddy. We have made it clear that we will face the elections under the leadership of (Basavaraj) Bommai. He (Reddy) may be a ticket aspirant but the party has not discussed any such move. For the moment there are no such plans (to field Reddy in the 2023 assembly elections),” state BJP vice-president Nirmal Kumar Surana said.
The spike in demand for iron ore from China from around 2004-06 brought the high-profile nexus of Reddy brothers, Sriramulu and others to the fore as they were exporting millions of tonnes of illegally mined ore.
Following the allegations, the Karnataka Lokayukta was tasked to probe the scam in March, 2007. The justice Santosh Hegde report in December 2008, the same time as BS Yediyurappa formed the state government in Karnataka, blew the lid on the scam, resulting in crores of losses to the exchequer.
There are also allegations of redrawing state boundaries, destruction of forest and intimidation against the Reddy brothers and their Obulapuram Mining company. Even former (now late) chief minister Dharam Singh of the Congress was indicted in the report among other top officials.
In 2010, Yediyurappa had imposed a ban on ore exports which was later lifted by the Supreme Court but the legal entanglements continue to hamper the mining industry.
The Yediyurappa and Janardhana Reddy standoff led to the latter moving legislators who supported him to a resort and demanding the removal of the former who was later forced to step down over charges of corruption.
Yediyurappa had eventually left the BJP in 2012 only to return to the fold the very next year when the BJP was reduced from 110 seats out of the 224 in 2008 to just 40 in the 2013 elections.
Janardhana Reddy had attracted more suspicion when he performed his daughter’s wedding, at an estimated cost of ₹500 crore, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to demonetise ₹500 and ₹1000 notes on November 8 2016.
