The rise and rise and rise of Janardhana Reddy in state politics

The padayatra politics triggered by the mining muddle has not only rocked the BS Yeddyurappa government in Karnataka, but also forced Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi to take notice. The rise of Bellary Reddy brothers is a phenomenon redefining the rules of the game of electoral politics.

The sons of an ordinary police constable, the three Reddy brothers — Karunakara, Janardhana and Somashekara — have come a long way from their humble childhood. Health minister B Sriramulu is almost part of the extended family. Janardhana is the brain behind their meteoric rise and expansion of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the district.

The heroes of the biggest of the rags-to-riches story in the state crisscrossed the dusty Bellary roads in early 1990s on a two-wheeler as they attempted to establish and later save a non-banking financial institution, Ennoble Savings and Investment India Pvt Ltd. The company wound up in 1998, with complaints of fraud and cheating to the tune of Rs200 crore.

That was the time when the  Reddy brothers had just joined the BJP and Janardhana was in trouble. The 1999 Lok Sabha polls saw the real emergence of Reddy brothers. As the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BJP’s Sushma Swaraj battled it out for the Bellary seat, they vigorously campaigned for Swaraj. She lost, but the doors of fortune opened for the Reddys. To their luck Gandhi quit the Bellary seat to retain Amethi from where too she had won. The Bellary voters felt let down, making the Reddys’ task of winning them over to their side and that of the BJP easier. By then Reddys had ventured into mining and the turnaround in their fortunes, as well as that of their party’s, had begun.

When BS Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the chief minister on May 30, 2008  the victory was credited as much to Reddys’ money power as to people’s power. As Yeddyurappa looked shaky with support from just 110 MLAs, it was Janardhan who brought stability through ‘Operation Lotus’.

However, sparks began to fly when Yeddyurappa tried to assert his authority in Bellary affairs in October last as the Reddys rebelled with their supporting MLAs. The BJP high command succeeded in salvaging the government only after mediation from party supremo LK Advani and Sushma in Delhi.

But the truce is showing signs of falling apart again. The CBI probe ordered by the Andhra Pradesh government into illegal mining and the legal battle in the Karnataka high court questioning their election has forced the Reddys on the backfoot for the first time. The recent fracas in the legislative assembly with Congress leaders has precipitated a new crisis as the Reddys have launched a counter padayatra in Bellary much against the advice of Yeddyurappa. As the war of nerves is on again, people of Karnataka are eager to see as to who will blink first.