Karnataka's ‘disgraced’ mining lord Janardhana Reddy eyes re-entry into Ballari politics through Sandur bypoll

Arrested 13 years ago in connection with the Rs 16,000-crore illegal mining case, Gali Janardhana Reddy has changed. So has Ballari, the district that saw his rise and fall.

“I’ve stopped flying around in helicopters. I move on the ground now,” Reddy, 57, said this week to frowning reporters who asked him to stop being inaccessible.

Reddy was perhaps punning about his decadent lifestyle - he was known to have three helicopters, one of them named Rukmini - while he ruled the roost from 2004 to 2011, when he was arrested in the illegal mining case.

The son of a police constable, Reddy made a fortune in the iron ore mining business.

His bathroom reportedly had gold taps while a motorcade of black SUVs followed him wherever he went in the “Republic of Ballari”, which is how then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde described Reddy’s operations.

While the mining tycoon is still considered as a man with huge resources, Reddy has changed, in that he no longer holds political clout in Ballari, where the BJP’s prospects have also dwindled.

The November 13 byelection to Sandur could change that for Reddy as he seeks redemption.

Reddy has set up a house in Sandur to manage the BJP’s election effort in a constituency that the saffron party has never won. A BJP win can help Reddy start his political re-establishment in the mineral-rich district.

Coincidentally, the Sandur bypoll came right after the Supreme Court lifted its 2015 ban on Reddy from entering Ballari.

“Winning Sandur isn’t a challenge,” Reddy says. “In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP polled about 80,000 votes in Sandur. That means there are 80,000 people who want the BJP to win. The difference between BJP and Congress is just 1-2 per cent votes. That’s the gap I want to bridge.”

Reddy’s first major appearance on the political scene was in 1999 when he, along with his buddy B Sriramulu, prepared the poll pitch for BJP’s Sushma Swaraj who was up against Congress’ Sonia Gandhi in the Bellary Lok Sabha constituency. Although Sushma lost, Reddy had arrived.

In 2006, Reddy was brought into the Legislative Council by the BJP-JD(S) coalition government. In 2008, Reddy became a minister in south India’s first independent BJP government. After his arrest, BJP saw Reddy as a liability.

When Reddy was the minister in charge of the undivided Ballari, Congress held only one (Sandur) out of the 10 Assembly segments there. Now, Congress holds seven (including segments in the new Vijayanagar district).

For the Assembly polls last year, Reddy formed his own political outfit - Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha (KRPP) - and won from Gangavathi in Koppal. Such was Reddy’s political indignation that he gave the ticket to his wife in Bellary city against his brother G Somashekhara Reddy, who lost. Reddy’s other brother G Karunakara Reddy also lost from Harapanahalli.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year, Reddy rejoined BJP.

“Reddy needs BJP more than BJP needs him,” political analyst Harish Ramaswamy says, adding that the BJP now isn’t what it was during Reddy’s peak.

“The Sandur bypoll is Reddy’s first election since he entered Ballari after a gap of nearly 14 years. A lot of things have changed demographically and politically. He’s now seen as a weak entity in the district’s politics.”

Reddy’s plan to help BJP win Sandur is easier said than done in a segment where voters have elected a non-Congress MLA only twice - U Bhupathi of Janata Party in 1985 and Santosh Lad of JD(S) in 2004.

Lad’s emergence led to the support base being divided between him and the erstwhile royal Ghorpade family, which was with Congress. After Lad joined Congress, the Ghorpades shifted to BJP.

It is said that Reddy could face a sentiment harboured by some that he is an outsider to Sandur. Also, Sriramulu is keeping a low profile after two successive poll losses. Plus, Reddy’s rivals in Congress are ganging up to keep him at bay.

But Reddy says he has his task cut out: “I want the BJP’s growth to start from Sandur.”