Reddy group opposes BSY govt proposal to divide Ballari

Somashekhar has claimed that he and three other BJP MLAs from greater Ballari region —- his brother G Karunakar Reddy, M S Somalingappa and N Y Gopalakrishna —- are against the decision to divide the 11 taluks of Ballari to create a new Vijayanagar district.

One of the MLAs from the Reddy brothers’ group, B Sreeramulu, who is a minister in the BJP government and the fulcrum of the support base enjoyed by the party among the sizable Scheduled Tribe Valmiki Nayak community in the region, has hinted at unhappiness over dividing Ballari and said he would raise the issue with the government.

On September 18, Yediyurappa fast-tracked the proposal to divide Ballari after the disqualified Congress MLA from Vijayanagar constituency, Anand Singh —- now associated with the BJP —- met the CM with a delegation of leaders from Ballari seeking the division for better administration of the sprawling region. Yediyurappa directed the chief secretary to place a report before the next cabinet meeting.

In his communication to the chief secretary to explore the division of Ballari, Yediyurappa stated that it is necessary to create the new district with six of 11 taluks in Ballari district, with Hospet as headquarters, since some areas of the district are 200 km from Ballari City, the current district headquarters, causing inconvenience to people,

The move, however, is also widely seen as an attempt to wrest control of the resource-rich region from the Reddy brothers’ group by Yediyurappa and MLAs like Singh, who have interest in iron ore mining. “Control of Ballari region — especially the role of the district in-charge minister — has been a source of dispute since the iron ore mining boom of the last decade. By dividing the region, an MLA like Singh is aspiring to control the region,” a political observer said.

While illegal mining in Ballari district — which has seen the incarceration of G Janardhan Reddy, one of the Reddy brothers of the BJP, for illegal mining by the CBI — has been curbed following Supreme Court intervention in 2012, local leaders are now keen to be in a position to control usage of nearly Rs 15,000 crore funds for ecological restoration. A Rs 15,000-crore project for restoration of the mining-affected region is a central aspect of the political tussle.

Congress leader D K Shivakumar, who was Ballari district in-charge minister in the previous Congress-JDS government, was in 2018 engaged in a dispute with another Congress leader Ramesh Jharkiholi —- who has now switched to the BJP —- for control of Ballari.

“The move to divide Ballari is also an attempt to break the political hold of Sreeramulu and the Reddys. Sreeramulu was tipped to be deputy CM if the BJP had won majority of Assembly segments in Ballari in 2018. But the BJP won only two of nine seats,” a Ballari official said.

Sreeramulu has stated that he would prefer Ballari district to be united. “Some are demanding creation of a separate district and others want it to remain united. I will speak to the CM and raise it in the cabinet,” the health minister said. “Whoever has met the CM seeking a separate district is selfish. We will not accept it. If the district is bifurcated it will be a Tughlak decision,’’ Somashekhar said.

The Reddy brothers’ group in the BJP and Yediyurappa were engaged in a bitter dispute for control of Ballari during Yediyurappa’s previous major tenure as CM between 2008-2011.

Yediyurappa was arrested in a corruption case related to illegal mining but later acquitted by a trial court in Bengaluru. G Janardhan Reddy, who was accused of running an illegal mining mafia, is still under trial in a CBI case.