High Stakes Game in Karnataka

With Sriramulu winning the Bellary bypoll, the Reddy group gets ready to dare the BJP

BANGALORE ~ Karnataka’s bizarre political circus shows no sign of ending. Some of the state’s politicians may well have been rapped on the knuckles for their links with illegal mining and real estate scams, but they continue to flaunt their political power, and brazenly attempt to destabilise the government in power.
Within a week of being re-elected as an independent MLA from Bellary, B Sriramulu has assigned himself the task of splitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by forming a new party. He is a former minister and part of the infamous Reddy brothers’ inner circle. His latest political machinations have the approval of Gali Janardhan Reddy, currently in a Hyderabad jail in the Andhra Pradesh mining scam case registered by the CBI.

Sriramulu had resigned from the BJP after Karnataka’s Lokayukta named him in his report on mining. Sriramulu resigned and then contested the Bellary bypoll as an independent, claiming that his conscience was hurt and therefore sought a mandate from the electorate.

His plans to destabilise the BJP had started soon after DV Sadananda Gowda replaced BS Yeddyurappa as CM and kept the Reddy brothers, and Sriramulu, out of the cabinet. “In the ensuing bypoll, they wanted to test the BJP on how far it would go, but unfortunately for them, Janardhan was arrested in the Andhra Pradesh case and their plans were thrown out of gear. Sriramulu standing as an independent was a good strategy and it still means they have a grip on Bellary district,” admits a senior BJP leader.

When asked, Sriramulu confirmed that he is forming a new party and denied that he is in touch with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) or Janata Dal-United (JD-U), both of which are wooing him. “Everyone is claiming credit for my victory, but I am indebted to the people for re-electing me. I am going to Delhi next week to petition the Election Commission and register a new party,” he says.

With his win in the Bellary bypoll (in which the BJP candidate lost his deposit), Sriramulu is being projected as a backward-classes hero. The Reddy camp had lost its swagger and arrogance after the Lokayukta’s report on mining and Janardhan’s arrest, but it can now afford to go back to its old ways, as it has seen its value as an ally soar once again. Sriramulu is just the kind of person that the JD-S had been searching for ever since it lost Siddaramiah (once a favourite of former PM, HD Deve Gowda) to the Congress.

The JD-U, which had lost relevance after the Janata Dal split in 1999, is hoping that Sriramulu and company would join it and rejuvenate the party, especially in the event of an early election. Sources say such an arrangement would also have the blessings of senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who has been sulking ever since the Reddys were exposed as illegal profiteers. The Reddys owe their rise to Swaraj who had stood from Bellary to take on Sonia Gandhi in 1999.

Sriramulu’s clout can be gauged from the fact that his victory was celebrated across all the neighbouring districts. Sriramulu, the former managing director of the Reddys’ finance venture which went belly-up in the 1990s, has had his ear to the ground and had once even advised the brothers not to mix business with politics. “Now, he has the Reddys’ money and [his own] political acumen. It’s a deadly combination to reinvent themselves in the political landscape of north and central Karnataka that has changed its loyalties from the Congress to the JD-S and now to the BJP in a span of 15 years,” says one observer.

Another calculation is that in the event of the BJP government collapsing—especially as several of its ministers are already in jail or are soon set to land there following a spate of allegations—Karnataka could be headed for Assembly polls before the scheduled elections in 2013. But, the BJP has an immediate worry on its hands. It needs the numbers to elect Sadananda Gowda to the upper house to enable him to continue as Chief Minister. It is into this battle for numbers that Sriramulu has jumped headlong. He claims to have 20-odd BJP MLAs on his side, which is enough to help the Congress and JD-U sabotage Gowda’s bid in the upper house.

The BJP’s other worry is former CM Yeddyurappa, who is now out on bail and breathing fire. Yeddyurappa wants a larger role in the party if Gowda must continue. “He has asked to be made state BJP president. Otherwise, he has threatened to walk out with his loyalists,” says a BJP insider.

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