Gadkari to take part in Pooja at Reddy brothers' house

Bellary (Karnataka), Aug 11: BJP President Nitin Gadkari will participate in a pooja at the Reddy brothers' house here on August 12, party sources said on Tuesday.

Gadkari's visit will take place at a time when the Reddy brothers--Karunakara and Janardhana--are understood to be trying to get back their ministerial berths after being dropped from D V Sadananda Gowda ministry in the wake of their indictment by Karnataka Lokayukta on illegal mining issue.

Gadkari will be accompanied by his family, sources said.

The Reddy brothers have been indicted in the Karnataka Lokayukta report on illegal mining and they were left out when Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda expanded his ministry inducting 21 members on August eight.

It was party senior leader Sushma Swaraj who had been performing the Varamahalaxmi Pooja here since 2004 after she unsuccesfully contested the Lok Sabha elections against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

In the wake of a controversy that she was behind Reddy brothers Karunakara and Janardhana''s induction into the previous B S Yeddyurappa Ministry and their rise as mining barons, she decided to stay away, the sources added.

PTI