Bengaluru, Feb 2 (IANS): BJP MLA Gali Somashekara Reddy, the brother of Karnataka mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, announced on Thursday that he will not backtrack from contesting elections from the Ballary City constituency.

Recently, Janardhana Reddy had announced his wife Aruna Lakshmi's candidature from his newly-launched party Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) from Ballary City.

"I will not backtrack from contesting the elections from Ballary City constituency, even though my brother's wife is also a candidate," he said.

"I can win the elections without the support of Gali Janardhana Reddy. In 2018, I won the polls without his support. Our work will save us. He invited me to join his new party. I refused. Enraged by this, he announced the candidature of his wife. This was expected," Somashekara Reddy added.

According to sources, Janardhana Reddy's decision to launch the new party has led to a strife within the family.

His brothers, Somashekara Reddy and Karunakara Reddy, are settled in they BJP and they are in no mood to take any risks.

A friend of Janardhana Reddy's, B. Sriramulu, who is the Minister of Health in the state's ruling BJP government, is in a fix over supporting the mining baron and quitting the saffron party, the sources said.

On the other hand, Janardhana Reddy is going all out against the BJP leaders and challenging them that they cannot make him bow down with raids and seizure of properties.

His new party is likely to affect the incumbent state government in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.