NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the plea of
BJP leader G Janardhan Reddy
+ for letting him go to Bellary to campaign for his brother, G Somashekar Reddy, who is a candidate for the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka.
SC dismissed the plea as it did not find any merit in it.
BJP has fielded G Somashekhara Reddy in Bellary, and his elder brother and former Bellary Lok Sabha member G Karunakara Reddy in Davanagere's Harappanahalli.
Though the most resourceful of them--G Janardhana Reddy-- has been barred from entering Bellary, in accordance with his bail conditions in the illegal mining case, he is camping near Molakalmuru in Chitradurga district overseeing the campaign of his siblings as also the BJP.
The BJP has publicly distanced itself from Janardhana Reddy, with party chief Amit Shah recently saying it has nothing to do with him, but ground realities suggest otherwise.
The Congress party and a section of the BJP see Shah's statement as mere public posturing. Janardhana Reddy, they say, has been given the task of galvanising the Reddy community votes for the saffron party in the region.
The Reddy brothers, whose stock soared during the iron ore export boom, had played a key role in installing the BJP's first government in the south in 2008.
In 2009,
G Janardhan Reddy was sent to jail for being involved in illegal mining of iron ore in Bellary in Karnataka and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. He was granted bail by the SC in January 2015.
(With inputs from agencies)
