Janardhan Reddy warns Nagendra against blaming BJP for his arrest

The former Minister exudes the confidence of winning the bypolls in the Sandur Assembly seat

Reacting sharply to the former Minister B. Nagendra’s statement that mining baron G. Jarandhan Reddy was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the directions of the BJP, Mr. Reddy warned the former not to play smart and blame BJP for his arrest.

“More skeletons will tumble out of the closet if Mr. Nagendra tries to play smart with me,” Mr. Reddy categorically warned him.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP office in Ballari on Thursday, Mr. Reddy said that Mr. Nagendra should not forget that several leaders, including Anil Lad, Anand Singh, T.H. Suresh Babu and Satish Sail, were also arrested by the CBI during the then UPA-led government at the Centre.

Mr. Reddy warned Nagendra not to speak nonsense just to get inducted into the Cabinet again.

The Enforcement Directorate has, in its charge sheet, mentioned that funds siphoned off from the Karnataka Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation by Mr. Nagendra were used for elections and personal expenses, including flight bookings and to pay electricity bills of his residence.

As much as ₹14.80 crore from the Valmiki Corporation have been used for the Lok Sabha elections by three legislators, including Nara Bharath Reddy, Ganesh and K.S Srinivas.

A sum of ₹10,000 was distributed to each Congress worker and, in all, ₹20 crore was utilised from the Valmiki Corporation for the recent Lok Sabha polls, he said.

In the last 15 months, the Congress-led government in the State has been reeling under several scams, including the MUDA case, allotment of sites to Siddharth Vihar Trust and the Valmiki Corporation case, he said.

Just recovering the Valmiki Corporation funds will not serve the purpose. The gravity of corruption can be exposed only by a thorough investigation and the BJP will continue to fight until strict action is taken against those involved in corruption, Mr. Reddy added.

Exuding the confidence of BJP winning the byelections in the Sandur Assembly seat, Mr. Reddy said that he will kick-start the election campaign in Sandur constituency on Sunday.

Replying to a question, Mr. Reddy clarified that the former Minister B. Sriramulu was not an aspirant for BJP ticket in Sandur. He refuted any difference of opinion between him and Mr. Sriramulu.

Mr. Reddy said that there is no confusion in the selection of candidate. The party high command will finalise the candidate for the Sandur Assembly Constituency.

Published - October 17, 2024 07:22 pm IST