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Bangalore: Shanta who? That question still tails the name of 36-year-old Joladarashi Shanta, the only woman BJP MP to emerge from Karnataka in the parliamentary elections held in May.
The Bellary MP, a political novice, finds herself pitched as the woman’s voice from the Reddy brothers’ camp in the current political battle in Karnataka between the Reddy brothers and Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa.
An unknown housewife till six months ago, the sister of Karnataka health minister and friend of the Reddys, 38-year-old B Sreeramulu, Joladarashi Shanta is being used by the Reddy group to counter Yeddyurappa’s confidante Shobha Karandlaje.
Shanta who won the parliamentary polls by a wafer thin margin in an impoverished Bellary constituency where her brother and the Reddy brothers rule the roost, gave Shobha Karandlaje an unexpected tongue lashing in the heat of the current crisis after the chief minister’s close aide claimed innocence in the run of affairs leading to the crisis.
The platform for Shanta’s entry into politics was laid when the Bellary seat was reserved as a ST constituency under the delimitation process.
The story goes that the Reddy brothers were looking for an ST candidate who could help them keep the district in their kitty since G Karunakar Reddy had been the Bellary MP before the seat was reserved. At this juncture BJP national leader Sushma Swaraj suggested the name of Shantha.
Her narrow 2000-vote margin of victory stands testimony to the fact that the Reddy brothers do not have an established vote base in Bellary in spite of their money power.
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