By Shivakumar G Malagi
April 2009
Bellary mining lords-BJP Reddy Brothers say they have fielded Joladarashi Shanthi, sister of their lieutenant- health minister B Sriramulu from the ST-reserved Bellary Lok Sabha constituency to gift the `victory’ to their `Amma’ Sushma Swaraj who unsuccessfully fought against AICC chief Sonia Gandhi from the same seat in 1999 and succeeded to sow Saffron seeds in this Congress fortress.
Over the ten-year period, the boom in iron ore mining industry has changed the political scenario in this mineral-rich district turning the strong Congress party bastion into a Saffron citadel. Reddys emerged big from the dusty iron ore mine fields to lead the Saffron brigade towards one after another electoral victory in the district, no doubt with their money power. The Reddys money has got arms to hit into the Congress citadel with the support of popular mass leader-Walmiki community strongmen-Sriramulu.
Now, the Reddys have again relied upon Sriramulu by fielding PUC II year passed house-wife Shanthi against Congress candidate-retired chief justice of High Court N Y Hanumanthappa to sustain their political hegemony that is most required for them to rule the money-minting mining industry in district.
Sushma Swaraj in her campaign in Bellary tore into Congress’ ‘GenNext’ leaders, saying they had become leaders by virtue of being born into rich, political families, even as Bellary’s powerful mine baron and state tourism minister Janardhan Reddy anointed Ms Swaraj the BJP’s next prime ministerial candidate, after Mr L.K. Advani.
Speaking at the last election rally for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state, with Ms Swaraj by his side, Mr Reddy said, “It is because of her annual Varamahalakshmi pooja in Bellary that the party has grown into an unbeatable political force. Sriramulu (health minister) and I campaigned for her on our bikes in 1999. Today, we own two-three helicopters.
That’s why we decided to field a woman candidate as a way to say thanks to her.” Ms Swaraj took a dig at Congress’ young leaders — Rahul Gandhi, Jyothiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Jatin Prasad and Priya Dutt — saying they had been made leaders on “compassionate grounds” after the death of their fathers.
She told voters not to vote for the Congress because it had removed anti-terror laws and had denied that Lord Ram had existed.
While, Shanthi, the youngest child of a railway employee and farmer mother Honnuramma, 70, who still tills the family land, says, “I come from a very poor family, I’ve worked in the fields, and there are days when we have starved, when my mother had nothing to feed the eight of us. I know and understand what poor people feel.”
Shanthi in her campaign in the Valmiki-dominated township of Devinagar, where Telugu is the lingua franca and the family’s tiny home is no different from hundreds that open out on to the foul-smelling street, everyone knows this 36year-old mother by name and face.
“I have come in the name of my brother,” she says, as she knocks on these doors. Blessed with the gift of the gab and an unerring political instinct, the smooth-talking Shantha cuts away to visit the home of a young mother who has lost her ninemonth-old baby. She admits she’s learnt at the feet of the master. She ran her brother’s campaign less than a year ago during the assembly elections and before that in 2004, when the popular 38-year-old won hands down, stepping into the vacuum left by the Congress, which clearly has no stomach for a fight.
Some residual Congress support lingers, even in Sreeramulu’s domain, with one old-timer saying “if Indira’s grand-daughter stands, I will vote for her.” Shantha is unfazed. “I’m doing this because my brother asked me to. I ran his campaign so I know the ins and out of running an election. After he became a minister, he had no time to meet the people from the constituency. They are so used to running to him with every problem, now they come to me.” The question is whom will they turn to, if, or should that be when, she goes to Delhi?
Will Sushma taste victory through Shanthi in Bellary after ten-years –is the question to get answer on May 16, 2009, when the results out.
Over the ten-year period, the boom in iron ore mining industry has changed the political scenario in this mineral-rich district turning the strong Congress party bastion into a Saffron citadel. Reddys emerged big from the dusty iron ore mine fields to lead the Saffron brigade towards one after another electoral victory in the district, no doubt with their money power. The Reddys money has got arms to hit into the Congress citadel with the support of popular mass leader-Walmiki community strongmen-Sriramulu.
Now, the Reddys have again relied upon Sriramulu by fielding PUC II year passed house-wife Shanthi against Congress candidate-retired chief justice of High Court N Y Hanumanthappa to sustain their political hegemony that is most required for them to rule the money-minting mining industry in district.
Sushma Swaraj in her campaign in Bellary tore into Congress’ ‘GenNext’ leaders, saying they had become leaders by virtue of being born into rich, political families, even as Bellary’s powerful mine baron and state tourism minister Janardhan Reddy anointed Ms Swaraj the BJP’s next prime ministerial candidate, after Mr L.K. Advani.
Speaking at the last election rally for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state, with Ms Swaraj by his side, Mr Reddy said, “It is because of her annual Varamahalakshmi pooja in Bellary that the party has grown into an unbeatable political force. Sriramulu (health minister) and I campaigned for her on our bikes in 1999. Today, we own two-three helicopters.
That’s why we decided to field a woman candidate as a way to say thanks to her.” Ms Swaraj took a dig at Congress’ young leaders — Rahul Gandhi, Jyothiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Jatin Prasad and Priya Dutt — saying they had been made leaders on “compassionate grounds” after the death of their fathers.
She told voters not to vote for the Congress because it had removed anti-terror laws and had denied that Lord Ram had existed.
While, Shanthi, the youngest child of a railway employee and farmer mother Honnuramma, 70, who still tills the family land, says, “I come from a very poor family, I’ve worked in the fields, and there are days when we have starved, when my mother had nothing to feed the eight of us. I know and understand what poor people feel.”
Shanthi in her campaign in the Valmiki-dominated township of Devinagar, where Telugu is the lingua franca and the family’s tiny home is no different from hundreds that open out on to the foul-smelling street, everyone knows this 36year-old mother by name and face.
“I have come in the name of my brother,” she says, as she knocks on these doors. Blessed with the gift of the gab and an unerring political instinct, the smooth-talking Shantha cuts away to visit the home of a young mother who has lost her ninemonth-old baby. She admits she’s learnt at the feet of the master. She ran her brother’s campaign less than a year ago during the assembly elections and before that in 2004, when the popular 38-year-old won hands down, stepping into the vacuum left by the Congress, which clearly has no stomach for a fight.
Some residual Congress support lingers, even in Sreeramulu’s domain, with one old-timer saying “if Indira’s grand-daughter stands, I will vote for her.” Shantha is unfazed. “I’m doing this because my brother asked me to. I ran his campaign so I know the ins and out of running an election. After he became a minister, he had no time to meet the people from the constituency. They are so used to running to him with every problem, now they come to me.” The question is whom will they turn to, if, or should that be when, she goes to Delhi?
Will Sushma taste victory through Shanthi in Bellary after ten-years –is the question to get answer on May 16, 2009, when the results out.
