Deep Vein Thrombosis

• The Reddys were a lower middle class family, their father retiring as a head constable. Now mining rights in AP alone pull in Rs 1,800 cr a year.
  
• The Reddy brothers entered politics as late as 1999. They rule Bellary now and are said to control 30-35 of the BJP's 110 MLAs in the state.
  
• Reddys control crucial portfolios of revenue, tourism, infrastructure
  
• RSS is said to be "very concerned with the Reddys' growing influence" on the state BJP

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Their enormous clout can be gauged from the fact while four-time MLAs for the BJP have been denied cabinet berths, two members of one family control some of the state's vital lungs. Understandably, this has spawned an undercurrent of disaffection. Party insiders say the RSS is "very concerned about the growing influence of the Reddys". There is also a new worry about its fast-changing image. "No party wants to be seen as being run by moneybags and deal-makers," says a senior BJP leader.

Besides the shylock image, the party has also become very conscious of the criminal records of some of the family's right-hand men, especially Sriramulu, referred to as the "fourth Reddy brother". He has serious charges, like attempt to murder and dacoity, pending against him in the courts. Incidentally, the audacity of the Reddys hit national headlines in 2006 when Janardhan Reddy made allegations of a Rs 150-crore-mining-bribe against Deve Gowda's son H.D. Kumaraswamy, the then CM. The bribe case is now pending before the constitution bench of the Supreme Court.

Inside the state BJP, there's already a potentially divisive debate: did the party perform because of the Reddys' financial muscle or because the Lingayat community stood firmly by Yediyurappa? The family's fairy-tale rise is interesting because they have a lineage neither in business nor in politics. They were till very recently a lower middle-class family hailing from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Their father G. Changa Reddy retired as a head constable. Janardhan Reddy, the most enterprising of the three, was a journalist in a district newspaper. The family later came to own a chit fund company called Ennoble India, which went bust around 2000, leaving the Reddys with a huge debt of nearly Rs 200 crore.

But they earned the goodwill of the people in and around Bellary by repaying their dues after they made it in the mining business. But even here they were late entrants. There are families in Bellary which have been in the business for the last 30 years; the Reddys apparently entered the scene only in 2005 with their Obalapuram Mining Company.

But like the meteoric rise in politics, they have literally minted money from the mining business. A rival miner who opened up to Outlook alleges the Reddys have only two mining leases—both in AP, bordering Karnataka. They reportedly have permits to mine six million tonnes of iron ore annually from what is said to be a disproportionately small spread. "If they mine 20,000 tonnes everyday and the cost per tonne is around Rs 3,000, they make a clean Rs 6 crore a day and anywhere close to Rs 1,800 crore a year. God alone knows how much of illegal mining happens," he says. The Reddys' strategy, he adds, is to make money in Andhra but operate out of Karnataka.

It's also not known how the Reddys were permitted to mine huge quantities when even bigger mines with larger areas have no such permit. "The Reddys entered the business in 2005 with a 3-5 lakh tonnes a year permit but it reached a whopping six million tonnes in no time. The National Mineral Development Corporation has been in Bellary for 30 years and has around 2,000 acres, even they can't mine 4-5 million tonnes. It's really mysterious as to how the Reddys can mine six million tonnes from just so many acres," our rival miner says. All efforts by Outlook to get the Reddys to clarify the facts went in vain.

So how did the Reddys survive in the business even after antagonising a sitting CM (Kumaraswamy) in '06? Well, it seems they knew pretty well that the state government could do nothing as their mines and supply routes were in AP. "That tells you how cunning the Reddys are. And besides, they are close to some very senior Congress leaders in Andhra Pradesh," the miner alleges.

Senior BJP leader and ex-minister D.H. Shankara Murthy, who's known the Reddys right from the time he was in charge of the '99 'Bellary battle', says the brothers deserve a bit more credit than the moneybags tag. "You have to realise they built up the BJP from scratch in Bellary. It was a Congress bastion till 2000 and within four years they turned it into a BJP fortress. They have ensured the victory of the party at every level. They also have a popular following in the district because of their committed social work. Yes, their style is a little too brazen, but then different people have different styles." Many political observers in the state dread that the Reddys may be no passing phenomenon. Now the question is if the family is too ambitious for its own good.