Two days after the arrest of former tourism minister G. Janardhan Reddy, the mining czar’s kin and die-hard supporters have reason to smile as the BJP leadership looks set to give in to their persistent demand for a berth in the cabinet of chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
Leaders of the ruling party have blinked despite the raids and arrest of their high-flying leader by CBI officers, factoring in potential short-term and long-term perils involved in keeping the Reddy brothers and theircamp-followers out of the ministry. The “peace plan” was approved during a meeting chaired by BJP president Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur on Tuesday. It was also cleared by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat ahead of his arrival in Bengaluru on Thursday to preside over a two-day brain-storming session with senior ministers of Karnataka and office bearers of all organisations of the Sangh Parivar. Sources in BJP said the names of B. Somashekar Reddy (Bellary city), one of the Reddy brothers and the youthful Suresh Babu (Kampli), nephew of former minister B Sreeramulu, figured during discussions on the third phase of expansion as neither figure in the Lokayukta’s report.