Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy’s party Karnataka Kalyana Pragati Paksha has been allotted the football as the party symbol. Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Monday, March 27, Reddy said that he was treated like a football by all parties. “Everybody, my enemies and friends, they treated me like a football. Now I want to think of them as this and play football with them,” he said, referring to his party symbol.
Reddy, who also released the party manifesto, said the Karnataka Kalyana Pragati Paksha would be contesting 50 seats in the coming Assembly elections, and was confident they would win at least 30 seats. While the names of 12 candidates have been announced, the names of 19 other candidates are expected to be announced in a week’s time. The former BJP leader and minister said that he had not been contacted by BJP or any other party and claimed that his party would not be allying with any other parties. Karnataka Kalyana Pragati Paksha will focus on seven districts of Ballari, Koppal, Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Kalaburagi, and Vijayanagara.
Reddy will be contesting from Gangavathi in Koppal, while his wife Lakshmi Aruna will be contesting in Ballari constituency against sitting BJP MLA and Janardhan’s brother Somashekar Reddy. Reddy is still not allowed to enter Ballari district. He is facing a host of charges in connection with illegal mining, and had stayed away from politics for the last few years. He announced his new party in December last year, breaking away from the BJP after a long association.
The party’s manifesto made a host of promises like free electricity up to 250 units for each home, free passes for students, free sites for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, interest-free loans for farmers, free education for children of economically weaker sections, and increased in salaries of anganwadi workers by Rs 1,000.