A senior BJP Karnataka minister whose official social media account recently posted an invitation for people to attend a public meeting held by a new political party floated by ex-colleague Gali Janardhan Reddy, has claimed his social media account was hacked to send out the incriminating message. Three days ago, the social media handle of Transport Minister B Sreeramulu put out a post that created a stir in the public domain. The tweet invited people to attend an event organised in Raichur by the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha, launched by Reddy, a close associate of Sreeramulu and a former mining tycoon who is facing multiple corruption cases from the 2008-2013 period when the BJP was in power in Karnataka. The post – which was later deleted - came amid reports of an IT raid on a close aide of the minister and reports of him being unhappy with the BJP leadership for having sidelined him in the party "Somebody hacked into my account. I have told the police about it,'' Sreeramulu said after the incident. The mysterious social media post and the absence of Sreeramulu at events involving PM Narendra Modi on Thursday has created speculation of the minister possibly sulking over his treatment by the BJP. On Friday, the Congress posted social media messages in this regard. "An IT raid on a close aide of Sreeramulu; A tweet by Sreeramulu calling for people to join Janardhan Reddy's party; No invitation for Sreeramulu to attend PM's event. Has Sreeramulu joined the ranks of BSY, Eshwarappa, Shettar on the BJP kick out list?'' the Congress party in Karnataka said on its official Twitter handle. A Scheduled Tribe Valmiki Nayak community leader, Sreeramulu's political star began to shine after his alliance with the Reddy brothers to campaign for BJP leader Sushma Swaraj for the Bellary Lok Sabha poll in 1999. He is considered to be unhappy with the BJP for not giving him prominence in the BJP's current tenure in Karnataka. In August last year, Sreeramulu had indicated at a public event that he was not opposed to seeing Congress leader Siddaramaiah as the chief minister of Karnataka. He told an audience comprising members of the backward class Kuruba community (to which Siddaramaiah, a former CM, belongs) - at an event organised by the Ballari Kuruba Sangha in the Bellary district - that the community must not consider him as an opponent, since he also wishes to see their community leader as CM. "Do not think I am opposed to Kurubas. I am not opposed to Siddaramaiah. Even I am of the view that he should become the CM if the opportunity presents itself. If you ask Siddaramaiah he will also say that Ramulu should become CM. In this large political system, we have to make alliances, these are all political strategies,'' the BJP minister said while claiming he helped Siddaramaiah win the polls in 2018. In some circles the remarks were seen as an attempt by Sreeramulu to regain prominence in the BJP, which he had lost after the 2018 state polls. Sreeramulu himself claimed that the remarks were an indirect call for all backward communities to unite under PM Modi. Sreeramulu emerged from being a young street thug in the Bellary region of Karnataka to a political leader of prominence under the guidance of the Reddy brothers of Bellary – specifically Janardhan Reddy – in the 2004 to 2012 period when the Reddys gained control of the iron ore-rich region through legal and illegal means. With the Bellary region having a sizable population of the scheduled tribe Valmiki Nayak community, Sreeramulu became the political face of the BJP and the mining business empire of the Reddy brothers. While the BJP dumped its close relationship with the Reddy brothers following allegations against them of a large-scale illegal mining scam in Bellary (during the BJP tenure from 2008 to 2013), Sreeramulu remained a key leader for the BJP. He has been used to canvas for the party among the Valmiki Nayak community in the Bellary-Chitradurga belt, as well as across Karnataka. In the 2018 elections, Sreeramulu was given large responsibilities by the BJP to win 15-20 seats in the ST belts of the state, but the party's performance did not live up to its expectations. In Bellary itself (where six of eight seats are reserved for SC/STs) the BJP won only three of the eight seats. Sreeramulu, who was expecting a top position in the government, began losing ground after the BJP failed to obtain a majority. Sreeramulu himself won the polls from the Molakalmuru seat reserved for STs in the Chitradurga region. Since the 2018 polls, Sreeramulu has seen his prominence gradually decline within the BJP in Karnataka, especially after the entry of ST leaders like Ramesh Jarkiholi, who crossed over from the Congress in 2019 to help the BJP topple a Congress-JDS government. Sreeramulu was presumed to have gained significance in the BJP again late last year, when the BJP increased reservations for Scheduled Tribes from three to seven per cent in the state in October 2022. The ST leader did not join the ranks of Janardhan Reddy when Reddy floated the Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha on December 25, 2022. Recent incidents however suggest Sreeramulu may be keeping his options open in the run-up to the 2023 state polls. After his associate Janardhan Reddy was arrested on corruption charges, ahead of the 2013 state polls, Sreeramulu had floated his own political party, the BSR Congress, which won four out of 150 seats it contested, winning 2.7 per cent votes. The BSR Congress was eventually merged with the BJP when Sreeramulu returned to the party in 2014,ahead of the General Elections fought by the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
