In a blow to the Congress in Ballari, party leader Anil Lad has expressed a desire to join the BJP on Friday. "I have not joined yet but I am willing to join the BJP," Anil said speaking to TNM.
He also stated that there was no discontentment with the Congress and that he "simply felt that it was time" to make a switch. "I am neither a candidate nor an aspirant in the upcoming bye-elections. I will simply be helping the party's candidates and endorsing them in their campaign,” Anil said.
He is unperturbed when he is asked about BJP's Somashekara Reddy, who defeated him in the 2018 Assembly elections and is a prominent member of the BJP in Ballari. "I will help the party in whatever way I can," Anil added.
Earlier this week, Anil sent a message to the party's cadre in Ballari seeking their opinion about leaving the Congress for the BJP before confirming his decision on Friday. This comes three months after Anil and Congress leader Anand Singh both opposed the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition government’s decision to sell land in Ballari to JSW in June. Anand Singh is one of the MLAs disqualified by the former Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar when the coalition government collapsed in July.
Sources in the Ballari unit of BJP stated that Anil may not get a chance to contest from Ballari since the party already has candidates in constituencies in the district.
"There was word that he will contest from Khanapur in Belagavi earlier and this may be where the BJP will ask him to contest from," says a source in the BJP in Ballari. The same source said it is unlikely Anil will be fielded as a candidate in one of the 15 constituencies where bye-elections are set to be held in the next few months.
Anil started his political career in the BJP when he was elected as the MLA of Kudligi constituency in the 2004 Assembly elections. He joined the Congress and was named as the party's candidate in Ballari City in the 2008 Assembly elections. Kudligi constituency was reserved for Scheduled Tribes, which meant Anil had to find a new constituency to contest from. He decided on Ballari City and contested the 2008 Assembly elections against BJP's Somashekara Reddy and lost by a slim margin of 1,022 votes. This was at a time when the influence of the infamous Reddy brothers – Janardhana, Somashekara and Karunakara – was at its peak in the state.
However, after this, when Somashekara's brother Janardhana Reddy was named as the prime accused in the Ballari mining scam by Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, the Reddy brothers slipped into political oblivion.
Anil Lad was elected as the MLA of Ballari City in 2013 by over 18,000 votes against the BSRCP candidate Murali Krishna. This was after former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's successful protest march against the Reddy brothers which culminated in the city. The BJP candidate GV Gouda finished 4th in the elections with just over 5,000 votes.
In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, Anil Lad once again contested as the Congress candidate in Ballari City against BJP's Somashekara Reddy in a repeat of their 2008 election contest. Anil lost again, this time by over 16,000 votes, in spite of running a campaign aimed at attacking tainted politician Janardhana Reddy and his involvement with the BJP.
But Anil and his brother Santosh Lad, also a politician, managed a mining company - VS Lad and Sons. Anil was detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2015 in connection with the illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port near Karwar. The Congress was criticised for fielding a candidate involved in mining in Ballari against one of the Reddy brothers, who continue to enjoy popularity and patronage in the district, despite the much-publicised mining scam coming to light.
The development comes at a time political parties in Karnataka are gearing up for the bye-elections in 15 constituencies that will determine the fate of the BJP-led state government. The bye-elections were earlier scheduled for October 21 but the Election Commission has said that it is willing to defer them until the Supreme Court decides on the issue of disqualification of the 17 rebel MLAs.