G Janardhan Reddy's daughter's extravagant wedding, Narendra Modi invited

BENGALURU: Questions are being raised on why the income tax department is not investigating the source of funding for former minister and mining czar G Janardhan Reddy’s daughter’s wedding to be held in Bengaluru’s posh Palace Grounds on Wednesday, causing huge embarrassment to the BJP top brass.

RTI activist Narsimha Murthy filed a petition with the income tax department on Tuesday making this demand, citing media reports the wedding of Reddy’s daughter Brahmani is being held at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

He also referred to reports that an entire fake village is being constructed at the Palace Grounds for the wedding and asked: ”How did a notorious criminal, who has spent the last three-and-a-half years in jail, get so much money to spend on his daughter’s wedding?”

Murthy said the IT department had said they were investigating the matter. He contended, however, that he had appealed to them o accompany him to the wedding venue and see for themselves the scale.

“They have not done so. Nor has the ED or CBI taken any action. Why will they? He has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the entire Union cabinet and the state cabinet also,” he contended.

Youth Congress state president Rizwan Arshad, who staged a protest against the way the demonitization was taken up, said: “The BJP’s stand on black money and their declared war on demonitization is sheer hypocrisy in the face of this wedding by their party man. They have not expelled Reddy from their party, they are utilising his services even today and have helped him out of legal trouble as soon as they came power. And no department has dared to question a BJP leader who is flaunting 100s of crores of rupees even today.”

The reported scale and lavishness of the wedding has pushed the state and central BJP leaders into an uncomfortable situation. Several state unit leaders told ET, off-the-record: “It has made it impossible for us to attend his daughter’s wedding, even for courtesy’s sake. Now, just after the PM’s surgical strike on black money, how can we attend a wedding that is being celebrated like this?”

State party president B S Yeddyurappa and legislative assembly opposition leader Jagadish Shettar, both former chief ministers, attended the pre-wedding event on Tuesday night.

BJP state unit spokesperson and MLA S Sureshkumar, who was Reddy’s cabinet colleague in ?the? Yeddyurappa government, denied contentions that a formal instruction had come from their party leaders in New Delhi that no one should attend the wedding. “We have not got any such diktat,” he stated.

Party sources, however, said that with the exception of BJP MLA B Sriramulu and Reddy’s brothers, Karunakar and Somashekar, who are former party MLAs, no senior leader was expected to attend the wedding. Activist Murthy said even this had to been take up. “If they are serious about black money, first they should remove Sriramulu, who is Reddy’s shadow, from the party,” he said.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress party has decided not to go, though everyone has been invited. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and senior JD(S) members are also expected to stay off.