Swamy worked in various engineering and management positions at
Cisco,
Dell,
Sasken,
Cadence Design Systems, and
Sun Microsystems. His research articles have appeared in
IEEE,
IETE, and other publications. He also obtained United States Patent No. 6,686,759 for "Testing embedded cores in multi-core integrated circuit designs" on 3 February 2004. He also worked as a full-time party worker of
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and served as the first president of BJP IT Cell (Karnataka Division). He contested and won the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Chitradurga, Karnataka. In 2009, Swamy became the first BJP candidate to win the
Chitradurga Lok Sabha constituency. He received 370,920 votes, winning by a margin of 135,571 votes, the third-largest during the
2009 Indian general election in Karnataka. In 2012, B.S. Yeddyurappa and B. Sriramulu left the BJP, creating the
KJP and
BSR parties, leading to significant electoral setbacks for the BJP in the 2013 Karnataka Assembly elections. The division notably impacted Chitradurga, a BJP challenge area, with the BSR's capture of an MLA seat in Molakalmuru, while the BJP secured only one MLA seat out of eight in the Chitradurga Lok Sabha area, underscoring the split's profound effect. Political fragmentation contributed to his loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Chitradurga. The reintegration of KJP and BSR into BJP in 2014 could not fully mend the electoral damage in certain regions. During his tenure as an MP (2009–2014), Janardhana Swamy, along with Davangere MP G.M. Siddeshwara and Tumkur MP G.S. Basavaraju, were instrumental in securing the sanction for a railway connection between Davanagere and Tumkur via Chitradurga, providing a direct connection to the state capital, Bangalore. Swamy played a key role in advancing the Upper Bhadra irrigation project, which aimed to supply 30 TMC of water from the Bhadra Dam to mitigate water scarcity in Chitradurga and surrounding regions. He resolved key political and administrative hurdles and negotiated with farmers to address concerns over tunnel construction and land acquisition delays. He played a major role in establishing
DRDO,
BARC,
ISRO, and
IISc's new facilities at
Challakere. Janardhana Swamy, representing the BJP, was elected by the Lok Sabha members to serve on the
Council of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the highest governing body overseeing all IITs. ==Literary works==