Siddaramaiah dares Janardhan Reddy to contest him from Bellary
The 16-day 320-km long ‘padayatra’ of Congress leaders from Bangalore to the iron ore-rich district of Bellary ended today with a massive public rally in Bellary city. Strongly criticising the BJP government for supporting the Reddy brothers’ alleged illegal mining in the state, Congress leaders challenged chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to dissolve the state assembly and seek a fresh mandate.
Central ministers from Karnataka — S M Krishna, External Affairs, Veerappa Moily, Law, Mallikarjun Kharge, Labour and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad — joined the state leaders in a show of strength against BJP ministers and iron ore mine owners from Bellary, the Reddy brothers.
Addressing the gathering, estimated around 200,000 by the party, the leaders charged the Reddy brothers with treating Bellary as their personal fiefdom and castigated chief minister B S Yeddyurappa for not reining them in.
Speaking at the rally, Siddaramaiah, leader of the opposition in state legislative assembly challenged Janardhan Reddy, minister for tourism and mining magnate from Bellary, to contest against him from Bellary in the election. “These Reddy brothers had challenged us in the assembly to step into Bellary and we have come. Nobody can stop us. Not just one Reddy, even hundreds of Reddys cannot do anything to us (Congress),” he said.
Bellary is not the property of Reddy brothers. It belongs to each and every Kannadiga and the Congress would teach them a lesson in the next elections, he said.
Terming B S Yeddyurappa as the weakest chief minister ever seen by Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said, “Let the chief minister dissolve the assembly and seek a fresh mandate. The people of this state would teach them a lesson.”
Congress leaders claimed the countdown for the fall of the first-ever BJP government in the south has begun and unleashed a barrage of attacks on ministers and the Reddy brothers — the mining magnates who hail from Bellary — accusing them of looting the state’s resources.
External affairs minister S M Krishna warned the BJP government that the Centre, “whether it is the prime minister or ministers have not closed their eyes to the rampant looting of natural resources.”
He said the Centre was seriously contemplating stringent steps against such plunder and promised that it would take all necessary steps to curtail it.
Union law minister M Veerappa Moily underlined the need for stringent action against the Reddy brothers to bring an end to their “illegal activities”, saying “if it is allowed to go unchecked, democracy will be in peril”.
“The Centre will bring in a stringent law against illegal mining and take all necessary steps to check it,” he said.
KPCC president R V Deshpande, who led the padayatra with party opposition leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah, said the party’s next course of agitation would be to bring down the BJP government. He asked Yeddyurappa to dissolve the assembly and go for a fresh mandate to test BJP’s strength.
Congress workers gave a tumultuous welcome to party leaders and workers as they arrived here in the mine rich district this morning. A 7-km long human chain was formed as the padayatra, which started on July 25 from Bangalore, reached the city for the rally, touted as a reply by Congress to the challenge thrown by the three ministers and mining magnates — G Janaradhana Reddy and his brother Karunakara Reddy and their close associate R Sreeramulu, who had dared the Congress to step into their home turf.
Schools and colleges were shut for the day as thousands of Congress workers from several parts of the state converged on the Reddy brothers’ political base daring to take on their challenge to Congress leaders to visit Bellary if they had the courage.
More than 5,000 police personnel were deployed, all vehicles entering Bellary were checked and CCTVs were installed at several places in the city to ensure there was no trouble as Congress had alleged that the Reddy brothers and their associate health minister B Sriramulu had planned to disturb the rally.
