From two cabinet seats in the erstwhile BS Yeddyurappa government to non-entities in Karnataka politics – it was a steep fall for Bellary’s mining barons, the Reddy brothers.
On Wednesday, G Karunakara Reddy, the only brother who contested from Harapanahalli on a BJP ticket, lost. Janardhana Reddy has been in jail since September 2011 for his alleged involvement in the mining scam. The other brother, G Somash-ekara Reddy, did not contest.
Time was, when the Reddy brothers were the uncrowned kings of Bellary. But the scam cost them the voter base and now, with the cash inflow stopped, even the party has been left nowhere. From winning 20 of the 26 seats in and around Bellary in 2008, , the BJP’s tally has fallen to two .
Janardhana’s nephew TH Suresh Babu, though, won from Bellary’s Kampli on behalf of the BSR Congress. The party had been floated in 2011 by Janardhana’s close friend, former minister Sriramulu, after they had been thrown out of the cabinet alongwith Yeddyurappa, following a Lokayukta report on illegal mining.