Janardhana Reddy's outfit won't impact polls, says political class

Leaders cutting across party lines feel Janardhana Reddy’s decision to float his own party may not make much of an impact during the elections.

They say Reddy is handicapped due to court-imposed restrictions that he can’t visit Ballari and since he lacks caste backing in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.

"Even if we assume that he succeeds in convincing the court to allow him to visit Ballari district for campaigning, he does not have strong caste-based leaders such as Transport Minister B Sriramulu, who belongs to Valmiki community (ST), to back him during the elections," a senior BJP leader from Ballari told DH.

“Today’s press conference of Reddy indicates that he is not only isolated in the party, but in the family too. None of his brothers or his close friends attended the press conference, which is a clear indication that he has challenging days ahead,” he said.

“If Congress leaders target us on corruption, we can counter them by reminding them about the cases against KPCC president D K Shivakumar. We can take a stand that the BJP will never succumb to 'blackmail tricks' of corrupt politicians like Reddy. We sidelined him since 2015,” another BJP leader from Koppal said.

A Congress leader from Vijayanagara observed that Reddy is nothing without the support of Sriramulu and vice versa.

“Being an outsider will be a disadvantage for him. He will always be seen as an ‘outsider’ as his Reddy caste is the dominant caste in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

He added that the Congress may not benefit from his party any which way, but BJP may benefit from his outfit as the saffron party can claim that it has zero tolerance for corrupt leaders.