G. Janardhana Reddy

Gali Janardhana Reddy (born 11 January 1967) is an Indian politician and businessman who is the Founder and President of Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha.

He has been serving as a Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the Gangawati Assembly constituency since 13 May 2023 being associated with the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha.

Reddy was born on 11 January 1967.

He has two brothers, G. Karunakara Reddy and G. Somashekara Reddy, and an elder sister, Rajeswari.

He and his siblings were born in Bellary, Karnataka to Rukminamma and Chenga Reddy, a police constable.

Janardhana Reddy has a pre-university college education

Reddy is an entrepreneur and a politician and owns a company of gold.

At the age of 21, Reddy established a residuary non-banking finance company called, Ennoble India Savings & Investment Company Limited, under the RBI in 1989.

Across South India, the company had a total of 125 branches with a turnover of 350 crores.

Reddy runs a school for mentally disabled children since 1997 and an old age home from 2004 with his own funds..

Over the years, Reddy has been involved in many controversies.

"M/s Ennoble India Savings and Investment Co.Ltd., having its Registered Office at 6(4), Raghavachari Road, Opposite Radhika Theatre, Bellary -583 101, has violated various provisions of Reserve Bank of India’s Directions relating to acceptance of deposits, investment in approved securities and submission of stipulated returns to the Bank. The financial position of the Company is not satisfactory and its Net Owned Fund has turned negative. The bank has, therefore, prohibited the Company with effect from October 05, 1998 from accepting deposits from any person including the existing depositors /certificate holders, in any form whether by way of subscriptions / instalments to any scheme conducted by the Company or by way of renewal of deposit or otherwise."

Reddy came into political spotlight during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections when the Reddy brothers were working as part of Sushma Swaraj's campaign.

At the time, Swaraj had been competing as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in Bellary against Sonia Gandhi, who belonged to the Indian National Congress, to become the MP.

Although Swaraj was unsuccessful, she remained a patron of the Reddys and was known to visit Bellary frequently.

After the Reddy brothers were charged during the mining scandal, Swaraj distanced herself from them.

The allegations against Reddy brought a bad reputation for the BJP in Karnataka and exposed opportunistic politics in the state.

In 2001, he took over Obulapuram Mining Company (OMCPL) which had an iron-ore mining lease.

While the company was still functioning, it has stopped collecting deposits from 2003.

He surrendered the Certificate of Registration to the RBI as the RBI stated in a advertisement made on the national news paper The Hindu that

Allegedly, his political clout helped him to get the iron-ore mining license in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh in 2004.

The government of Andhra Pradesh allocated 10760 acres of land for the project.

In 2006, due to the BJP - Janta Dal (Secular) (JDS) coalition government and the efforts of Reddy, B. Sriramulu was made a Cabinet Minister.

In 2006, Reddy was made a Member of the Legislative Council to recognize his active role in increasing the BJP presence in Bellary.

However, in later years, Reddy fought with Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy, and made allegations, and provided evidence of corruption, resulting in his suspension.

However, H. D. Kumaraswamy did not hand over the government to B. S. Yeddyurappa at the required time.

The State President of the party at the time, D. V. Sadananda Gowda and B. S. Yeddyurappa revoked Reddy’s suspension who then campaigned alongside Yeddyurappa for BJP during the Assembly Elections of 2008.

Aided by Reddy’s efforts, BJP emerged as the single largest party with 110 seats and with the support of 5 independent MLA’s, BJP formed a government in South India for the first time on its own.

Reddy was then inducted as the Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure and the Minister in-charge of the Bellary district, setting many developmental milestones for the state and for Bellary during this period.

In July 2011, the Lokayukta of Karnataka, Santosh Hegde, published a report on the illegal mining activities in the Bellary region.

Reddy was accused of completely rigging iron ore mining in this area and defrauding the government.

Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation officials had clues to tax evasion and found that Reddy had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with a one-dollar company in Singapore to camouflage the company's income suppression.

They raided the place along with other investigative agencies and formed a report which served as the basis of the report on illegal mining.

Reddy is said to have designed a "Zero-Risk system" of iron ore mining, where he seamlessly provided protection to unauthorized and unaccounted mining, with active connivance from government officials at all levels.

The rule of the iron ore mafia under his command was called the "Republic of Bellary" in which no external control or governance mechanism had any effect.

However, the project didn't take off and the land allotted was canceled in 2013Andhra Pradesh Government cancels land allocation to Brahmani Steels Limited.

In spite of allegations made against Reddy and his period of judicial custody, Reddy remains a popular politician which was witnessed by the state on 29 January 2017 when Reddy received a standing ovation from a large crowd at the HemaVema function in the palace grounds in Bangalore.

Reddy did not contest the Karnataka assembly polls in 2018; however, his brothers, Sriramulu and four other candidates close to Reddy received a BJP ticket.

On 25 December 2022, Reddy quit BJP and soon announced the launching of a new political outfit called "Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha"

In the May 2023 Legislative assembly elections for Karnataka, Reddy made a remarkable comeback to active politics by winning the Gangavathi assembly segment contesting on the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Party ticket.