By IANS
Bangalore : Bellary, a semi-arid but iron-ore rich district in north Karnataka, has played a crucial role in the fall of two coalition governments in the state in a span of less than one-and-a-half month.
First, it was the ministry led by H.D. Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in the first week of October, followed by the short-lived ministry headed by B.S. Yeddyurappa of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which fell Monday.
The JD-S and BJP had come together in February 2006 to form a coalition government on the understanding that after 20 months Kumaraswamy will make way for Yeddyurappa for the remaining 20 months of the assembly’s life.
On Oct 3, Kumaraswamy refused to honour his word and the BJP pulled out of the alliance, bringing down his ministry.
One of the reasons the JD-S cited for its refusal to transfer power to the BJP was the accusation B. Sriramulu, BJP legislator from Bellary district who was then tourism minister, levelled against Kumaraswamy for attempt to murder him.
Earlier, another BJP legislator from the area, G. Janardhana Reddy, had charged Kumaraswamy with receiving Rs.1.5 billion in bribes to allow illegal iron ore mining in the district.
Janardhana Reddy is a rich mine owner himself, owns a chopper and a fleet of luxury cars. His brother is a BJP MP from Bellary and Sriramulu is their ally.
The BJP did suspend Janardhana Reddy soon after he levelled the bribery charges against Kumaraswamy in order to ensure that JD-S will transfer power to it. It also forced Sriramulu to resign just a day after he accused Kumaraswamy of having a hand in the attempt to murder him during local body election campaigning in September.
Still, Kumaraswamy and his father, JD-S president and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, did not agree to the transfer of power to the BJP.
After their dramatic patch-up, the JD-S wanted BJP to keep Sriramulu out of the Yeddyurappa ministry. The BJP rejected the demand, as the Reddy brothers and Sriramulu are considered to be a major help for the party in securing funds.
“They want to take Sriramulu in the ministry. That is one of the reasons for us to withdraw the support to Yeddyurappa,” Deve Gowda told reporters after his party legislators were issued a whip to vote against the confidence motion in the assembly Monday.
Besides opposition to Sriramulu’s inclusion in the ministry, the JD-S was keen on retaining cash-rich mining and urban development ministries. The BJP rejected this demand too, leading to the fall of the week-old Yeddurappa ministry, the first BJP-led government in south India.
Bellary, which thus figured in the two events, still remains backward though one can see the latest luxury limousines traversing the dusty, pot-holed roads of the district.
The region is rich in iron ore and other minerals, and the demand for steel in China for the Beijing Olympics has made several miners in the district multi-millionaires in the last few years.
The district has been a Congress bastion for decades. It hit headlines when Congress president Sonia Gandhi contested the Lok Sabha election of 1999 from there and easily defeated Sushma Swaraj of the BJP.
Swaraj’s spirited fight helped the BJP later to win the Bellary seat which Sonia Gandhi had vacated.