Mining baron and Gangavathi’s Karnataka Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) MLA G Janardhana Reddy on Monday, March 25, re-joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after merging his party. The KRPP founder said he took the decision to help Narendra Modi become the Prime Minister for the third time. He joined the party in the presence of party leader BS Yediyurappa and state BJP President BY Vijayendra. His wife and politician Aruna Lakshmi has also joined the BJP ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“I am merging the KRPP party with the BJP party. I have joined the party under the blessing of BS Yediyurappa and BY Vijayendra’s leadership. Union Minister Amit Shah told me to come to the party. Yediyurappa is the reason for BJP's presence in Karnataka. When he was the chief minister, he gave me a ministerial position, now there is his son. I have the opportunity to work with both father and son. I have joined the BJP as an activist without any conditions,” Janardhana Reddy said.
Reddy established the 'Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha' in 2022. In the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, Reddy clinched victory in the Gangavathi constituency, emerging as the sole KRPP candidate to secure a seat in the state polls. In last year's Karnataka assembly polls, Janardhana Reddy's brothers, G Karunakara Reddy and G Somashekara Reddy, both contesting as BJP candidates, faced defeat.
The Reddy brothers—Janardhana Reddy, Somashekara Reddy, and Karunakara Reddy—were once groomed by the BJP to wield political influence in both Karnataka and the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state. Janardhana Reddy had also played a pivotal role in propelling the BJP to power for the first time in Karnataka in 2008. He was also made the Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure and the Minister in-charge of the Bellary district in 2008 under the leadership of BS Yediyurappa. Following charges of his involvement in illegal mining in 2011, he was arrested and the BJP maintained distance from him. After his release on bail in 2015, Janardhana Reddy had severed ties with the BJP.