Janardhana Reddy's arrest politically motivated: BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit on Wednesday termed as politically motivated the arrest of former minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy by Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with illegal mining, as the agency had not probed allegations of Congress leaders involved in it.

Speaking to reporters, state unit BJP Spokesperson Ayanur Manjunath alleged Congress was unnecessarily probing Reddy's alleged involvement in illegal mining activities, despite there being no mention of his name in the First Information Report.

He said Reddy's arrest was politically motivated as the CBI has not conducted any probe into allegations of Congress leaders alleged involvement in  llegal mining.

"Why have they only targeted Reddy? Even Congress members of legislative assembly and leaders also are involved in fleecing the country's natural resources, he said.

The meeting,which discussed strategies for the Sep 26 Koppal bypoll and ways to strengthen the party, felt Reddy's arrest and former minister Sriramulu's resignation of his  assembly membership would not have any impact on the bypoll result.

Manjunath said Sriramulu resigned as he was indicted by former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde in his report on illegal mining. "He is not against BJP," he added.    

People in Bellary and surrounding districts are aware that Reddys and Sriramulu are not against BJP, Manjunath said. Manjunath said Opposition Congress and JDS would not be able to give a tough fight to BJP as they lacked strong leaders.

He attacked State JDS President H D Kumaraswamy for reporte reportedly calling Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda a coolie. "The Chief Minister is coolie for 6.5 crore people of the state, but Kumaraswamy's family had been working for their own benefits.

"In a democracy a Chief Minister is a coolie working for people's betterment," he added.