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Sriramulu is a member of the Valmiki-Nayaka community and, being a scheduled tribe, can forge a connection with the Dalit population, BJP hopes.

Bengaluru: The BJP is betting on a controversial 46-year-old scheduled tribe MP to counter chief minister Siddaramaiah’s platform of Dalits, OBCs and Muslims in the 12 May Karnataka elections.

The MP, B. Sriramulu, represents Ballari and belongs to the Nayaka (also spelt as Naik) community and is thought to hold sway over the group in northern and central Karnataka.

He is also one of the two MPs the party has made an exception for and allowed to contest the assembly elections, the other being its chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa.

Having bolstered Sriramulu to a level on a par with Yeddyurappa’s, the BJP is now spreading the word that he could even be made the deputy chief minister if the BJP wins.

The strategic shift

Ballari district comprises one parliamentary and nine assembly constituencies.

Since 2004, it has been a stronghold of Sriramulu, a close confidant of mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, the alleged kingpin of a multi-crore mining scam.

In 2004 and 2008, Sriramulu won the Ballari assembly constituency on a BJP ticket, and in the 2011 bypoll as an independent. In 2013, he won the seat as a candidate of the BSR Congress, the breakaway party he eventually merged with the BJP in 2014. In the general election that year, he was elected the Ballari MP.

However, this election season, Sriramulu has not been fielded from Ballari. He will instead contest from Molakalmuru in Chitradurga district, a strategic location that will help the party garner votes in not only central but also northern Karnataka.

Sriramulu, the man

He is a member of the Nayaka community, which comprises 7 per cent of the state’s population.

His background as a member of the scheduled tribes can help him forge a connection with over 10 per cent of the Dalit population, party leaders say.

He is a Telugu speaker, a facet that holds great appeal among voters in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region in the state’s north who also speak the language.

His voters in the region see him as a modern-day ‘Robin Hood’. His efforts, with the help of the Reddy brothers, to provide financial assistance as well as support, through mass marriages, to the poor and needy have endeared him to locals.

Sriramulu, the ‘asset’

Along with the Reddy brothers, the MP played a crucial role in the BJP’s ‘Operation Kamala’ in 2008 (aimed at effecting defections to stabilise the party’s minority Yeddyurappa government), thus earning the party’s trust.

In 2011, Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde released his report on illegal mining in Bellary, indicting not just two of the three Reddy brothers (Gali Janardhan and Gali Karunakara) but also Sriramulu and Yeddyurappa.

The Lokayukta report formed the basis for the CBI’s decision to jail Janardhan Reddy, who is now out on bail.

In the wake of the report, Yeddyurappa resigned as CM, and Sriramulu and the two Reddys were not included in the Sadananda Gowda cabinet. Sriramulu subsequently resigned as MLA and then from the party, floating the BSR Congress in 2011. In the 2013 polls, the new party ate into the vote and seat share of the BJP. The next year, he was back with the BJP ahead of the general election.

The BJP high command is well aware that Sriramulu has the charisma to attract the young and the elderly of the Nayaka community, spread across Ballari, Raichur, Koppal, Gadag and Chitradurga districts.

The Congress acknowledges as much and, soon after his candidature was announced, summoned its Valmiki leaders and asked them to unite forces against the BJP’s bid to usurp the scheduled tribe vote through Sriramulu.

The Reddy factor

Out on bail, Janardhan has been barred by the Supreme Court from entering Ballari, but he has decided to camp close to Molakalmuru to help campaign for his confidant, whom he calls his brother.

Sriramulu has always stood by the Reddy brothers, even though the BJP has kept them at a distance. In fact, he doesn’t see it as a choice. “Janardhan Reddy is still a part of the BJP and has been loyal to the party,” he has often said during the current campaign.

BJP national president Amit Shah stated at a recent public meeting that the party had “nothing to do with Janardhan Reddy”. But the fact that the BJP has given tickets to both Sriramalu as well as the third Reddy brother, Somasekhara, shows that the party, despite the explicit bid to dissociate itself from the Reddys, hopes to use them by promising the deputy chief minister’s post to Sriramulu.

The gamble

Political scientist Dr Sandeep Shastri said Sriramulu’s scheduled tribe identity was definitely an asset for the BJP, but termed a “gamble” the bid to project him as candidate for the deputy chief minister’s post.

“In the party’s rank and file, there are already two former deputy chief ministers and a former chief minister. Bringing in a new claimant would mean the BJP is adding to its problems,” he added.

Analyst Prof. Muzaffar Assadi reiterated the point, saying there were “too many claimants for the post to be reserved for Sriramulu”. “Sriramulu has worked hard for the people in Ballari. There is no doubt that he is looked upon as the Robin Hood of that region,” Assadi said.

“But at the same time, we should understand that if the BJP comes to power, they will need to accommodate the Lingayats and the Vokkaligas for their win. There are way too many people who are vying for the deputy chief minister’s post and it cannot be reserved for him. He will always be associated with the powerful and corrupt Reddy brothers,” he added.

The new seat

With the election less than a month away, Sriramulu has run into rough weather in his new constituency, Molakalmuru.

Sriramulu’s candidacy from the constituency threatens to unseat incumbent BJP MLA and former friend Thippeswamy, and neither the leader nor his supporters have taken to the decision well.

When Sriramulu arrived in the constituency last week to kick off his campaign, Thippeswamy’s supporters threw stones at his car, with one photograph of the melee showing the MP’s shirt torn. Women came out with brooms and it was clear that Thippeswamy and his supporters had declared war on Sriramulu. The MP, however, remains confident about his prospects.

“I challenge him to try and win the constituency. He can contest as an independent or from any other party, but I will defeat him,” Sriramulu told reporters recently.

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