All roads lead to Palace Grounds in Bengaluru as mining baron and former BJP minister Janardhana Reddy hosts his daughter’s big fat Rs 500 crore wedding.
Almost every politician and actor invited to the wedding has been making a beeline to the ground on Wednesday, as Brahmini Reddy tied the knot with Hyderabad-based industrialist Rajeev Reddy.
Despite the outlandish amount of money spent for the wedding and the corruption taint on Janardhana Reddy, the five-day wedding, which began on November 12, has seen a number of politicians and A-list celebrities attending the ceremony.
There were 50,000 guests invited to the lavish ceremony.
Actors Yash, Puneeth Rajkumar, Ravichandran, Sarath Babu, Brahmanandam and Suman Talwar were present for the main wedding event – the muharata- on Wednesday.
Among the attendees were Union ministers Sadananda Gowda and his wife, BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa, BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje, MLA CT Ravi, former BJP minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, National general secretary of BJP Kailash Vijay Vargiya, former Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar and RSS leader Kaladka Prabhakar Bhatt.
The BJP and RSS leaders were in attendance in spite of reports that the BJP high command had asked leaders to stay away from the wedding. TNM had reported on Tuesday that this was not true, and BJP leaders would attend all ceremonies.
In fact Yeddyurappa and Janardhana Reddy hugged as well. The two BJP leaders have had a tumultous relationship over the years. At least twice during BS Yeddyurappa's regime, Janardhana Reddy lead a rebellion and tried to unseat Yeddyurappa.
Karnataka governor Vajubhai Valla was present at the wedding.
Yeddyurappa said,"I have known Brahmani since she was a child. Hence, I have come to wish her for her wedding."
Not just BJP leaders, Congress leaders attended the wedding too - Congress leader Ambareesh and his wife Sumalatha, Home Minister G Parameshwara, Energy Minister DK Shivakumar and Transport minister Ramalinga Reddy were present. Former CM of united Andhra Pradesh Kiran Reddy also attended the wedding.
Parameshawara said,"Because of our friendship and because Reddy invited me for his daughter's wedding I came to bless the couple."
Senior actors Jayanti, Bullet Prakash, Saroja Devi, Basavaraj Bommai and Lakshman attended the wedding.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and former Prime Minister HD Devegowda said that they were not attending the wedding.
The wedding hall is a replica of the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam.
Reddy built a model of his bungalow in Ballari's Cowl Bazar, and a traditional Ballari village as he wanted his daughter to be married in the surroundings she grew up in.
On Tuesday, Bengaluru-based RTI activist and lawyer Narasimha Murthy filed a complaint with the Income Tax office in Bengaluru alleging that the mining baron had evaded tax.
Reddy, who was also a former BJP leader, was arrested by the CBI over charges of illegal mining cases. He was released on conditional bail in January 2015 after spending three years in jail.