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Journalism of Courage
With the campaigning for the May 10 Karnataka Assembly polls now entering its final phase, vehicles displaying the image of a football could be frequently spotted criss-crossing the dusty mining town of Ballari.
Football is the election symbol of a new party, Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP), floated by the former BJP minister and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, 56, who has been a prime accused in a slew of cases of illegal mining and corruption being probed by the CBI, which are linked to the B S Yediyurappa-led BJP government in the state during 2008-2013.
The KRPP was launched by Janardhan on December 25 last year after being released from prison on bail and exiled from Ballari by the Supreme Court. He has fielded his wife Gali Aruna Lakshmi as the KRPP’s candidate in the Ballari City seat against his own brother and the ruling BJP’s sitting MLA, G Somashekhar Reddy.
In light of the KRPP’s high-voltage campaign for Aruna Lakshmi’s bid, the talk in political circles in Ballari is that the electoral battle in the town would be fought mainly between her and and the Congress party’s debutant candidate, Nara Bharath Reddy, the son of Suryanarayan Reddy, a prominent regional Congress leader who was earlier with the JD(S).
There is also the buzz that various political players ranging from Janardhan’s BJP friends to disgruntled Congress veterans are “backing” the KRPP. Thus despite having a favourable wind due to the perceived anti-incumbency factor against the BJP dispensation, the Congress, which has a traditional vote base in the constituency, is bracing for a close fight.
Since the iron ore mining boom in 2004, all the polls in the impoverished Ballari region have largely been decided by the money power of its mining barons, the Reddy brothers, rather than local issues. Even the spending for the gram panchayat electioneering would run into crores, say locals.
Since 2004, the Janardhan group has dominated politics in the belt through relatives and associates and has lost it only briefly in a 2013 poll to the Congress, when over Rs 2,500 crore illegal mining racket was exposed by the Karnataka Lokayukta leading to the CBI cases.
“The KRPP candidate has a good chance of winning. Even Sreeramulu (Janardhan’s close associate and a BJP minister) may support the KRPP only. There is a negativity towards Somashekhar Reddy (BJP candidate) over the last two years,” says a BJP worker at Sreeramulu’s palatial house, Aruna Gardens, in Ballari. Sreeramulu is the leader of the Scheduled Tribe Valmiki Nayak community, which has a large presence in the region.
“Many of the Congress leaders are also backing the KRPP candidate. Leaders say they remain in Congress but their supporters have crossed over. It is all understanding politics. It is the Congress that always defeats the Congress,” says Tappal Ganesh, a mining businessman and Congress leader, who had contested the seat as a JD(U) candidate a few years ago.
Former Congress MLA Diwakar Babu has indicated that many of his supporters have joined hands with the KRPP. Other Congress veterans like K C Kondaiah and Allum Veerabhadrappa have been conspicuous by their absence from the campaign trail, local party leaders say.
Janardhan floated the KRPP as a means to stay politically relevant after the BJP rejected his bid for an open return to the party given the pendency of criminal cases against him.
“Political compulsions have forced Janardhan Reddy to launch a party and field candidates. He needs to prove himself to obtain some kind of shelter from the cases he is facing. A look at his poll affidavit will reveal the number of cases against him (20 cases). Being in politics is the only way to gain some kind of immunity in these cases,” says Ganesh. “His brother Somashekhar is not contesting the polls in a serious manner against his sister-in-law. The BJP in Ballari is more or less associated with the football party. This is so strange that a national party is being neglected for the football party.”
Both Sreeramulu and Somashekhar rejected Janardhan’s offers to leave the BJP and join the KRPP.
Sreeramulu’s social media handle however “inadvertently” put out messages in January, inviting people to an event organised by the fledgling party, which the former later dismissed as a hacking incident.
In 2013, when the state BJP witnessed a split on account of corruption charges against Yediyurappa and Janardhan Reddy, the party’s Ballari unit led by Sreeramulu floated a breakaway outfit called the Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress or BSR Congress, which bagged three Assembly seats including Ballari Rural, which was won by Sreeramulu.
A wave against the BJP had then swept the region over the Reddy brothers and their associates’s alleged bids to turn the iron ore mining district into a fiefdom dubbed the “Republic of Bellary” through organised illegal mining and export activities.
The BSR Congress merged with the BJP in 2014, following which Sreeramulu was elected to the Lok Sabha as a BJP nominee. The move to roll out the KRPP is also being seen as a move to “offset” the anti-incumbency trend against the BJP and to keep the Reddy family in control of the town.
Some local observers say the Congress has a slight edge unless the BJP candidate, who recently described his sister-in-law as a mere “housewife”, throws his weight behind the KRPP entirely ahead of the polling day.
“The verdict is unpredictable. The Congress has its permanent votes in the form of vote banks. Muslims will consolidate for Congress in Ballari, the Christians also, almost all the SC/STs back the Congress too. The KRPP’s vote count will start from 1,2,3… but Congress will start at about 40,000 and BJP at 25,000. It may be tough for KRPP,” says Ganesh.
In the Congress camp, however, several local leaders have not been welcoming to Bharath’s candidature. “The father-son duo (Suryanarayan-Bharath) are under the impression that they can swing the vote with money power and on the basis of the favourable wind towards the Congress. They have not enlisted the cooperation of local leaders of long standing,” a senior Congress leader said.
“It is very difficult for senior leaders to work with a young candidate who does not respect them. This is why seniors are not working on their own accord for the Congress,” said a party leader.
Another local Congress leader however described Bharath as a “young charming leader” who stands a fighting chance of winning.
The JD(S) has fielded a mining businessman Anil Lad who won the seat in 2013 on a Congress ticket. Lad was also a Congress candidate in 2008 and 2018 as well, with his candidature likely to cause some divisions in the Congress support base to the KRPP’s advantage.
On his part, Janardhan is contesting from the Gangavathi seat in neighbouring Koppal district as he is barred from entering the Ballari region due to the criminal cases pending against him. He recently praised Yediyurappa as being an “unparalleled leader”, claiming “I was the one who made him the CM (in 2008)”.
While Aruna Lakshmi has not directly attacked her brother-in-law in her campaign, she has said at a public meeting that Somashekhar was elected as a BJP MLA on the basis of Ballari’s development done by her husband during 2008-2013, when the latter was a BJP minister, even as she is promising more development.
Ballari Rural constituency
In the Ballari Rural seat, the BJP’s Sreeramulu, who is locked in a direct fight with the sitting Congress MLA B Nagendra. is facing an uphill task on account of his absence from the constituency for nearly a decade since his
win in 2013 as a candidate of his BSR Congress. “It is an uphill task in Ballari Rural for Sreeramulu. The Congress MLA is holding strong. Nagendra may be ahead at present,” says a local BJP worker.
“The Congress candidate has worked hard in the constituency to develop goodwill among all communities. He is seen as a pleasant and willing worker for the people. He himself belongs to the Valmiki Nayak community (like Sreeramulu) which makes up nearly 15 per cent of voters. There are a large number of Kurubas (20 per cent) and Muslims (25 per cent) who will vote for Congress. Sreeramulu is finding the going tough in the seat since he has been absent for nearly 10 years,” says a TV journalist who has worked in the area.
Sreeramulu has been trying to woo Muslims but it has not worked due to the stand taken by the minority community against the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government’s policies including the scrapping of 4 per cent OBC reservation for them, the journalist added.
Winners of past elections
Ballari City
2008 – G Somashekhar Reddy – BJP
2013 – Anil Lad – Congress
2018 – G Somashekhar Reddy – BJP
Ballari Rural (ST-reserved)
2008 – B Sreeramulu – BJP
2013 – B Sreeramulu – BSR Congress
2014 – N Y Gopalakrishna – Congress
2018 – B Nagendra – Congress
