Gali Janardhan Reddy's wife Aruna Lakshmi unveils party flag

Former Karnataka Minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy on December 25 announced a new party named 'Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha', four months ahead of Assembly polls in the State. With this, the leader, accused in an illegal mining case, has cut his two-decade-old association with the BJP.

Ballari: Former Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy's wife Aruna Lakshmi unveiled the party flag at an event at Benakal village in the Ballari district on Sunday. G Janardhana Reddy announced a new party 'Kalyan Rajya Pragati Paksha' a few days ago. At the event, Aruna Lakshmi said, "Janardhana Reddy's wish is that Karnataka should become the welfare state of the entire country. It is my responsibility to work as per his wish. I had come to Benakal village because restrictions were imposed on Reddy's entry to Ballari. My husband believes that if the blessings of the people of Kuruba society are upon us, we will win the elections. So, the flag unveiling programme was launched amid Kuruba Samaj." "Reddy has endured many kinds of pain and humiliation. He has formed the party to serve the people and nobody can keep Reddy away from people. The public is everything," she added.

Former Karnataka Minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy on December 25 announced a new party named 'Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha', four months ahead of Assembly polls in the State. With this, the leader, accused in an illegal mining case, has cut his two-decade-old association with the BJP. Re-entering Karnataka's electoral politics from outside his home district of Ballari, he also announced that he will contest the 2023 Assembly polls from Gangavathi in the Koppal district.

"Despite BJP leaders saying that I'm not a member of the party and have no relationship with it, the State and its people believed that I'm from that party, but that belief has turned out to be false. Today I'm announcing 'Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha ' drawing inspiration from Basavanna (12th-century social reformer), which is against divisive politics in the name of religion and caste," Reddy said on December 25 in Bengaluru.