Reddy-ing for a takeover

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Bangalore: A power struggle within the Karnataka unit of the BJP threatens to tear apart the first BJP government in south India, at a time when hundreds of families in 15 northern districts of the state affected by the worst floods in a century are looking for government succour.

The parties involved are the usual suspects —chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and a group loyal to him on one side and on the other, the camp of the Reddy brothers, wealthy mining barons from the iron-ore mining district of Bellary.

The Yeddyurappa and Reddy groups in the Karnataka BJP have been at loggerheads in Karnataka since last June when the BJP first came to power. The BJP high command’s mediation quelled two revolts by the Reddys.

Having allegedly used their enormous wealth in the May 2008 Assembly polls, to aid as many as 18 MLAs in the BJP’s victory charge, the Reddy brothers are seen to have played an important role in installing Yeddyurappa as the chief minister.

They are also said to have played a key role in stabilising the BJP government by pushing the MLA tally to 117, after the BJP fell three short of the magic 113, by allegedly inducing members from the Congress and JD(S) to quit their seats and then get elected on BJP tickets.

Soon thereafter, the Reddy brothers were seen to have extracted their pound of flesh with two brothers, G Karunakar Reddy and G Janardhan Reddy, becoming ministers in the 34-member Yeddyurappa ministry, along with B Sreeramulu, virtually a third brother, and as many as five MLAs brought into the BJP by the Reddys.

Over the last 18 months, the Reddy brothers, who are business partners of former Andhra Pradesh Congress chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy, have had differences with Yeddyurappa over several issues.

Among the favours extended to the Reddy brothers by the Yeddyurappa government after a crisis in June was the dropping of several court cases pending against them.

The flashpoint in the current crisis in the Karnataka BJP came on October 28 when the Reddy brothers’ group ignored chief minister Yeddyurappa and began inaugurating the construction of houses for the flood affected in their home district of Bellary.