In advance of the 2019 Assembly elections, former Karnataka minister and mining magnate G. Janardhana Reddy on Sunday announced the formation of a new party, ending a 20-year affiliation with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Janardhana Reddy said during a news conference that his backing helped the BJP win over 100 seats in the 2008 state elections.
Reddy, who is a defendant in the case of unlawful mining, then declared the end of his two-decade relationship with the BJP.
Additionally, he said that he would represent Gangavathi in the Koppal district, outside of Bellari, in the 2023 Assembly elections.
"BJP leaders claimed that I am not a party member and have no affiliation with it, yet the state and its residents still held this belief. This belief has proven to be untrue. As a result of my own thinking and Basavanna's [a social reformer from the 12th century] thought, which is against divisive politics in the name of religion and caste, I'm announcing Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha today "Reddy was cited by PTI as saying.
He told reporters that he will travel around the state in the coming days to organize the party and to interact with the populace.
With the exception of a brief period prior to the 2018 Assembly elections, when he campaigned for his close friend and current Minister B Sriramulu in the Molakalmuru Assembly segment, Reddy had been largely politically inactive for nearly 12 years since his alleged involvement in the mining scam led to his arrest by the CBI. He has been on bail since 2015 after being charged in a multi-million dollar case of unlawful mining.
Karunakara Reddy, the older brother of Reddy, is a BJP lawmaker from the Harapanahalli Assembly district. Somashekar Reddy, the younger brother of Reddy, represents the party's rural Ballari constituency. Sriramulu is a lawmaker from Molakalmuru in the Chitradurga district and the tribal welfare minister.
As he ended his affiliation with the saffron party, Reddy also mentioned some of the BJP's leaders, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar, and BS Yediyurappa.
Reddy initially gained political attention when he worked as a campaigner for the late Sushma Swaraj, who ran against Sonia Gandhi from Ballari in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.
