Gali Janardhana Reddy | |
---|---|
Minister in the Government of Karnataka | |
In office 31 May 2008 – 3 August 2011 |
|
Member, Legislative Council | |
Assumed office 18 June 2006 |
|
Personal details | |
Born |
Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh |
11 January 1967
Nationality | Indian |
Children | 2 |
Occupation | Businessman (GJR Group CMD) |
Religion | Hinduism |
Website | Legislative Council Page |
Gali Janardhana Reddy (born 11 January 1967) is an Indian politician with the Bharatiya Janata Party and one of the richest politicians of Karnataka. He has subsequently been implicated in the illegal mining scandal in Bellary and the related Belekeri port scam. In 2009, a Supreme Court of India-appointed central empowerment committee recommended action against Reddy-owned Obulapuram Mining Company. An FIR in the case was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Also, Santosh Hegde, the Lokayukta or ombudsman of Karnataka state, had indicted Reddy and his two brothers, all of whom were cabinet ministers in the Bharathiya Janata Party ruled Karnataka state government at the time, in the mining scandal.
After being arrested and sent to judicial custody, all three Reddy brothers (and the then CM B. S. Yeddyurappa) were removed from their ministerial positions. Subsequently, they broke away from the BJP. While Yeddyurappa formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) party, the Reddy brothers joined up with B. Sriramulu to form the BSR Congress party.
Janardhana Reddy and his brothers G. Karunakara Reddy and G. Somashekara Reddy were born into the Telugu speaking family of police constable Chenga Reddy, in Chittoor district Andhra Pradesh and grew up in Bellary. He and his brothers transformed themselves in less than a decade from industrialists into political bosses who dominated local government in the Bellary district, which holds the state's richest iron ore deposits.
Janardhana never had a college education. He came into the limelight during the Lok Sabha elections in 1999, when the Reddy brothers worked in the campaign for Sushma Swaraj after she stood as a long-shot candidate in Bellary, against Sonia Gandhi. Though Swaraj lost, she remained a patron of the Reddys, and was known to visit Bellary frequently. However, after the mining scandal broke out and the Reddy brothers were indicted, chargesheeted and sent to judicial custody, Swaraj distanced herself from them, and all three Reddy brothers were expelled from the BJP's state government in Karnataka as well as from the party itself.