Ramalinga Reddy

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ramalinga Reddy

• Ramalinga Reddy is an Indian politician known for being the president of the Karnataka Indian National Congress since February 2001.

• He started his political career in 1973 and was the secretary of the students union at Government Science College, Bangalore. He was also a member of the student council at Bangalore University.

• Since his college days, he had an interest in organizational activities. In 1973, when he joined NSUI, he attended NSUI National Convention in Trivandrum, Kerala.

• In 1977, he became the student union president at Bangalore University.

• In 1980, he became a member of the Senate and finance committee at Bangalore University.

• In an interview, he said that during his college days, university elections were big events. He and other students received a lot of support from the parties and even got pamphlets made for them. Many young leaders were encouraged and the public too was pro-active. The Congress party was strong then and people like Indira Gandhi and Sri Devaraj Urs were his inspiration. Indira Gandhi’s 20-point programme and other activities gave him inspiration.

• He was a corporator of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike from 1983 to 1988.

• In an interview, he said that he joined Indian National Congress after getting inspiration from the poverty eradication programmes of Indira Gandhi and D. Devaraj Urs.

• In 1985, he became the president of the Jayanagar Block Congress Committee.

• From 1998 to 2008, he was the president of the Bangalore City District Congress Committee.

• In 1990, he became a member of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and worked there till 2018.

• In the 1994 state elections, he was the only Congress candidate who won from Bengaluru.

• In 2013, he became the chairman of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation and North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation.

• He has worked on social causes including improvement in the maintenance and infrastructure in all parks through active participation in residents’ welfare association, ensuring proper street lighting on low-light roads for the safety and security of women and children, easing the arterial roads, radial roads and junctions including Silk Board Junction, St. Johns Junction and Hosur Road Junction, improving government schools facilities including quality of classrooms, sporting facilities, labs, and upgradation of BWSSB lines to ensure proper and sufficient supply of water to all.

• In an interview, he talked about the importance of education in politics and said,
  

  A certain handling capacity is important in politics. More than education, there should be an initiative and interest. One must know how to handle officers and how to mobilize funds. One must have the knack required to bring funds out of programs as well. Sometimes double graduates are total failures in politics and others who are not educated at all do well. One should be able to give anything certain amounts of time and work on it until the job is done. Education might help, but there are these things as well is what I am telling you.”

• He has worked on the JNNURM Scheme under which eight hundred houses were sanctioned. He built houses in Rajendra Nagar, Koramangala, Chandrappa Nagara and S R Nagar for Rs. 2 Lakh per house.

• In an interview, he said that the obstacle he faced as an MLA was a lack of funds and knowing how to use funds from out-of-programs to solve problems.

• In 2015, his daughter got married and her marriage was eco-friendly. The wedding invitations were made from recycled paper, the flowers used were made of recycled paper, and the 20,000 guests that were invited were asked not to carry leather and silk clothes.

• In 2016, when he was the Minister for Transport and Chairman, he inaugurated BMTC’s new Bus Station at N.R.Colony in Basavanagudi.

  

• In 2017, he met citizens for Bengaluru and BMTC Bus Prayanikara Vedike volunteers who started a campaign to share the struggle of women garment workers to get access to public transportation. In a Facebook post, the volunteers said that many garment workers on Mysore Road preferred taking private buses or tempos over BMTC buses because the fare of the BMTC buses was higher than private buses. They earned a monthly salary of Rs. 7,000, and they could not afford to pay Rs. 1,050 for a monthly BMTC bus pass.

  

• In 2018, his name was withdrawn from the list of new ministers after the reshuffling of portfolios by the ruling party. The list was reportedly approved by Congress President Rahul Gandhi. After the list was announced, his supporters blocked the arterial Hosur Road and disrupted traffic in the busiest area of Bengaluru.

  

• In 2018, the BJP criticized the Congress party’s move to send a circular to heads of police in all districts in which they asked for their opinion on cancelling cases against minority communities in incidents of communal clashes. After the criticism, Reddy lashed out at the Congress leader and said it was not a circular but only a reminder. He further said that the BJP did not understand English and they misguided the public.

• In 2019, he withdrew his resignation from the Congress party which he sent along with 9 other MLAs. After the withdrawal, he decided to vote in favour of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the state Assembly. According to him, the resignation was signed because of the internal problems of the party and not because he was unhappy with the state government.

• In 2019, he wrote a letter to chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, deputy chief minister G Parameshwara and Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun alleging irregularities in city waste management. He requested them to investigate the Mini Transfer Stations (MTS) project worth Rs. 246 crores given to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for mini transfer stations to come up in 50 wards.

• In 2022, he said that there was a ‘glaring discrimination’ in the release of development funds to Bengaluru MLAs. In an interview, he said that since the BJP came to power in Karnataka, 15 BJP MLAs were allocated Rs. 9,880.15 crore. According to him, 12 of his own party MLAs were allotted only Rs. 2,186.48 crore. JDS MLA (Dasarahalli) was alone allocated Rs. 288.5 crores. The MLA funds are meant for works under the Amrut Yojana, Nagarothana and Storm Water Drain schemes.

• In 2022, it was reported that the BJP government was collecting Rs. 100 per month from the parents of government school students as a donation. Ramalinga expressed his opinion about the issue and said,
  

  Since the BJP government came to power, the education system in the state is in complete disarray. Thousands of government schools have been closed. More than 10 lakh children are deprived of education. Ramalingareddy questioned whether this is the anti-education policy of the government. The term of the current academic year is half over and uniforms, textbooks, shoes and socks have not been distributed to the students in many places. How can children learn if they are not provided with text tools? He speculated that the delay might be because the government has backed away from the 40 percent commission.”

• In 2023, he filed a complaint against BJP’s CH Ramurthy to the Election Commission of India (ECI) over Ramurthy’s alleged hooliganism. According to Reddy, Ramurthy, the candidate from Vijaynagar was ‘threatening people with 200-300 of his aides at midnight. In an interview, he talked about this and said,
  

  More than 75% of them will be in cars wearing helmets and masks. In car also they are wearing helmets. They don’t want to identify (themselves). 50% Bangalore rowdies are in that (Vijaynagar) constituency. That is why we complained. We are asking for paramilitary from today itself.”

• In May 2023, when the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate CK Ramamurthy won in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar constituency against Congress leader Sowmya Reddy by 16 votes, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar accused the election commission officials of manipulating the results against Sowmya Reddy. Shivakumar and Ramalinga protested against the electoral body’s order.