Janardhan Reddy's daughter wedding
Janardhan Reddy's daughter Brahmani's wedding: 10 things you need to know about big fat Reddy marriage. Pictured: Janardhan Reddy's daughter weddingTwitter

Gali Janardhan Reddy, an accused in Bellary mining scam and a former BJP politician who was also the tourism minister in the BS Yeddyurappa government, is drawing ire and awe in equal measure. While the lavish wedding of his daughter Brahmani to Rajeev Reddy on Wednesday in Bengaluru and the pre-wedding celebrations have hogged the limelight, the display of wealth is embarrassing the political class, apart from prompting an activist to file a complaint about it with income tax authorities.

Even as the BJP holds the high moral ground on fighting corruption and black money led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, its regional leaders are apparently not on the same page as their leader.

Senior Karnataka BJP leaders, including state party president Yeddyurappa and former chief ministers Jagadish Shettar and DV Sadananda Gowda, attended the prenuptial celebrations of Brahmani and Rajeev Reddy on Tuesday, according to the New Indian Express.

This, despite the BJP officially distancing itself from issuing any instruction to party leaders on attending the wedding. 

"Why would the party get involved in someone's private function? It is not a party function for us to issue any orders," the Hindustan Times quoted BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao as saying.

Janardhan Reddy was in a Bengaluru jail for three years and was released in January last year after securing bail from the Supreme Court in an illegal mining case.

RTI activist T Narasimha Murthy has filed a complaint with the directorate general of income tax (investigations) raising questions about the lavish nature of the wedding. 

"Reddy was released from prison in 2015, after serving a five-year jail sentence in illegal mining cases. Besides expensive cars and choppers, Reddy and his wife Lakshmi Aruna's immovable assets, worth around Rs 70 crore, have been seized. Still he has managed to invest crores of rupees in his daughter's wedding. How can this be possible?" the Times of India quoted from his complaint. 

Janardhan Reddy has reportedly spent over Rs 5 crore on invitation cards. The boxed invitation has an LCD screen inside it. When the box is opened, LCD screen gets alive with a text announcing "Bramhani Weds Rajeev Reddy" followed by a song and dance by the Reddy family.

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