Karnataka elections: The Reddy brothers are facing a number of charges including illegal iron-ore mining. Karnataka elections: The Reddy brothers are facing a number of charges including illegal iron-ore mining.

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Karnataka mining baron G Janardhan Reddy’s plea seeking permission to visit state’s Bellary district for two days for campaigning ahead of the assembly elections to be held on May 12. Janardhan’s elder brother and son of late chief minister S Bangarappa, G Somashekhara Reddy, is contesting on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, He is among the 82 candidates fielded by the party in Karnataka.

The top court has barred Janardhan Reddy from entering the Bellari region on account of charges against him.

The Reddy brothers are at the core of an alleged illegal mining racket between 2008 and 2013, when the BJP was in power in Karnataka. The racket is alleged to have exported iron ore worth an estimated Rs 16,000 crore out of India after forcing their way into forests and shipping the ore as their own with the connivance of people in government.

Speaking on the home turf of the Reddy brothers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress of consistently defaming Bellary by projecting the region as “inhabited by robbers and thieves” while ignoring the good governance witnessed during the Vijayanagara empire between the 14th and 17th centuries.

In the last week of April, BJP national president Amit Shah had skipped a scheduled roadshow and party workers’ meetings for Bellary City candidate Somashekhar Reddy and had reportedly asked state leaders to stay away from the trio. However, after this, the party’s state president, B S Yeddyurappa, said that the Reddy brothers were important, largely due to their ability to deliver nearly 15 seats in Hyderabad-Karnataka region, where BJP is relatively weak.

“We will make Bellary a fortress of the BJP once again,’’ the BJP’s Bellary City candidate G Somashekara Reddy, one of the Reddy brothers, said Thursday at a public meeting where PM Modi called on voters to support the BJP candidates in the region.

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