Union Minister Pralhad Joshi addressing a press conference in Hubballi on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: PTI
“The Congress is turning Ballari into a republic of MLA Nara Bharath Reddy’s. It is misusing the police and the other authorities to protect Congress leaders who are engaged in violence,” Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said in Hubballi on Sunday.
He said that Bharath Reddy is the reason behind the recent clash in Ballari and sought his arrest.
“Now that it is established that the Congress worker died by a bullet fired from a private person, who is a personal security guard of the MLA, the police should take strict action against him. I appeal to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to see that such incidents do not recur,” he said.
He told reporters that the State government has been misusing the police to target its adversaries.
“I am not supporting the former Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy,” he said.
“If he has done something wrong, let the police take action. Why should the Ballari City MLA’s supporters go to Gali Janardhan Reddy’s residence? Janardhan Reddy has said that he was not in Ballari, but in Gangavati. I believe the clash happened due to a disagreement on where to put up a banner. My question is that if the police were there on the spot, why did they not open fire at the violent mob? Why did they let a private person shoot? There needs to be a detailed investigation,” he said.
‘Change for better’
Mr. Joshi dismissed the charge made by Mr. Siddaramaiah that the NDA government at the Centre is trying to “murder” Mahatma Gandhi once more, by changing the name of NREGA (since repealed by Parliament) scheme.
“The Chief Minister should have control over his language. Otherwise, he will have to face legal action like Rahul Gandhi. Anyway, Congress leaders like Mr. Siddaramaiah have no right to take the name of Mahatma Gandhi. They have killed him many times before. By an estimate there are over 300 projects or monuments named after members of the Nehru-Gandhi family, but only a few named after the real (Mahatma) Gandhi. The new VB-G RAM G has been crafted for the sake of developed India, job security and livelihood. But leaders like the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar make such statement only to please their party leaders,” he said.
“NREGA has been running for 20 years and the Central government has made the required changes to make it a better scheme. The main purpose of the change is to strengthen livelihood. The new scheme will help infrastructure development. It expands the number of workdays to 125. There were several irregularities and funds misuse in the earlier scheme. The new scheme will plug the leakages by using GPS. The gram panchayats can decide on the works to be taken up. There is no centralised control,” he said.
He said that the State government’s policies are promoting violent incidents like the murder of a woman in Yellapur.
“The Chief Minister should instruct officials to take strict action against the accused without looking into their caste or religious affiliation,” Mr. Joshi said.
Published – January 04, 2026 08:47 pm IST
