Earlier this week, BESCOM sent bills to consumers regarding their consumption. The bills drew the ire of netizens and even KJ George, the Energy Ministry of Karnataka. He sought clarifications from officials as the government had announced free electricity from July 1.
However, do you know some fun facts about him? Here are the top ten facts about KJ George.
-
An All-Out Party Loyalist:
Five-time MLA Kelachandra Joseph George, also known as KJ George, is regarded as CM Siddaramaiah’s close aide, and party circles are aware of his devotion to the Gandhi family.
Image Source: Oneindia Kannada
KJ George has been a member of Congress since Indira Gandhi’s presidency, making him an outright party stalwart. He started in politics with the Youth Congress and worked his way up to become a minister in previous Karnataka Congress administrations.
-
His Connections With Kerala:
George has deep ties to Kerala despite spending most of his life and political career in Karnataka. In the 1960s, his family was involved in agriculture and relocated from Kerala to Gonikoppa in the Kodagu region of Karnataka.
Image Source: IBTTimes India
Since his humble origins as the son of a coffee farmer in Kodagu, he has gone a long way. Today, George controls a vast corporate empire called the Kelachandra Group and owns vast tracts of land in Bengaluru.
-
The Political Strongman:
George ran for the Karnataka Assembly in the most recent elections from the Sarvagnanagar district, and he easily defeated the Bhartiya Janata Party’s candidate by a margin of more than 50,000 votes.
One of the tallest Congressmen in Karnataka, KJ George, is now regarded as the face of the Sarvagnanagar assembly constituency. Since the constituency was established, George has been elected from the same seat.
Image Source: ANI News
George beat BJP candidate MN Reddy in the 2018 assembly elections by 53,304 votes. The seasoned politician won the 2013 assembly elections by 22,854 votes over Padmanabha Reddy of the BJP. George has previously won the Bharatinagar constituency’s assembly elections twice.
-
Credited With Infrastructure Projects:
He served as a minister in the administrations of Veerendra Patil and S. Bangarappa. Being a close confidant of Siddaramaiah, the five-time MLA was appointed home minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet in 2013. Many infrastructure initiatives, including the airport metro link, are credited to KJ George.
Image Source: Swarajya
-
A Man Of Liking:
Siddaramaiah had no natural association with George for most of his four-decade political career. Still, in the last five years, Mr George became the man the ex-CM S Bangarappa trusted the most. Siddaramaiah seems to have taken a leaf out of another Backward class CM, S Bangarappa, who counted George as one of his top three troubleshooters.
Image Source: Deccan Herald
“It is not clear why CMs trust George so much. The case was the same with Bangarappa, who made George the urban development and housing minister and took his advice on most things. Siddaramaiah made him a home minister and often spends evenings at George’s house. The liking is that high,” an associate of the CM told ET.
-
The Multi-Millionaire:
KJ George is not exceptionally verbal, but the political class admires the shrewdness that allowed a kid from a low-income government school to become a multimillionaire businessman who now owns racehorses and lives a high-class lifestyle.
Image Source: The Economic Times
Mr George, who purportedly started making money in the ship-breaking business, has stated publicly that neither corruption nor government favouritism is necessary to succeed because he generates millions of dollars legitimately from real estate and other enterprises while also paying taxes.
-
Owner Of Large Swathes Of Land:
KJ George allegedly owns vast tracts of land in Bengaluru. He is far more powerful than DK Shivakumar, a Siddaramaiah government minister recently targeted by the I-T Department raid. Both leaders allegedly support the Congress and have close ties to Sonia Gandhi, the party’s leader.
Image Source: The Week
-
Protégé of Gundu Rao:
KJ George, a protégé of Gundu Rao and a native of Somwarpet, Kodagu, relocated to Bengaluru during the Sanjay Gandhi administration in pursuit of a constituency because his native Virajpet was a Scheduled Castes-only district. He held influential positions within the Youth Congress and repeatedly won elections from Bharatinagar from 1985 through 1994.
Image Source: Parliamentarian
In the Veerendra Patil ministry, he served as transport minister for the first time. With Bangarappa, he abandoned the Karnataka Congress and lost the 1994 election. After that, he expanded his commercial empire and won the newly created Sarvagnanagar constituency.
-
Best Rated Minister:
Using data sets in the public domain (attendance in assemblies, starred questions, unstarred questions, percentage of MLALAD fund utilisation, perception survey, educational background, criminal record, and social media, etc.), the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B PAC) rated him as the best legislator in Bangalore in 2018. He was given the Best MLA and Best Minister Award of Karnataka by Shining India News & Shining India Research & Analysis
Image Source: BPAC
-
Forefront During The Pandemic:
During the Covid-19 pandemic, he was at the forefront of helping his constituency, Sarvagnanagar. He created a Centralised War Room, which provided immediate response and quick solutions by trained experts. Moreover, he established fever clinics, a dedicated ambulance service in each ward, a 100-bed Covid-care facility at Ambedkar medical College and much more.
Image Source: KJ George
