Jailed mining baron Janardhana Reddy to contest in Karnataka assembly polls

Bellary: Former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, who is lodged in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda jail in connection with illegal mining case, is all set to contest the assembly elections in Karnataka in May next year.

Janardhana Reddy was arrested in September last year by CBI.

"Janardhana Reddy will contest next Assembly polls as candidate of Badava Shramika Raitha (BSR) Congress either from Bellary, Kushtagi or Chitradurga constituencies. He is yet to make a choice from where he would contest," Bellary MLA G Somashekara Reddy, brother of Janardhana Reddy told reporters.

Somashekara Reddy said BSR Congress President B Sriramulu would soon send in an affidavit to CBI in this regard. "We are confident that Janardhana Reddy will contest the election because people remember him as a "good" person. He is a victim of political conspiracy," he said.

Mr Sriramulu had visited Janardhana Reddy on November 28 in Chanchalaguda Central Prison in Hyderabad and discussed about the elections, he said.

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The mining baron turned politician had appealed to the CBI special court in Hyderabad to release him on bail to make it possible for him to contest the elections, he said.