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     Kdnumber1 Side Hero Username: Kdnumber1 Post Number: 3547 Registered: 02-2009 Posted From: 65.120.124.222 Rating: N/A |
Who are the Reddy brothers and how did they come to dominate Karnataka’s political scene? Sons of a police constable, stories abound of the time when the Reddy brothers criss-crossed dusty Bellary roads on a twowheeler as they attempted to establish (and later save) a non-banking financial institution,Ennoble Savings and Investment India Pvt. Ltd. The company wound up in 1998, with complaints of fraud and cheating to the tune of Rs 200 crore. Meanwhile, Sriramulu had surfaced on the local political scene as a disciple of the then Congressman Diwakar Babu. The 1999 Lok Sabha elections saw the real emergence of the Reddy brothers. As Congress chief Sonia Gandhi battled it out against the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj for the Bellary seat, the brothers emerged as Sushma Swaraj’s trusted local aides. Though Swaraj and Sriramulu (who contested the 1999 Assembly elections) lost, for the Reddy brothers, both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections that year proved to be a crucial stepping stone. Under Swaraj’s aegis, Sriramulu, who is often called her adopted son, and the Reddy brothers worked tirelessly to establish BJP’s hold in what was once a Congress bastion. |
