After Yeddyurappa, it is now the BSR party chief and close aide of Bellary Reddy brothers, B Sriramulu’s turn to rejoin the BJP. Sriramulu, who was sulking after the arrest of Gali Janardhana Reddy, has formed his own outfit called BSR Congress and now the deck has been cleared for the merger of his party BSR Congress with the BJP. Sriramulu told the media that he will take a decision soon to rejoin BJP.
He said, “I have received an invitation from the BJP to join the party. I will announce my decision after holding consultations with my supporters and constituency people.” Sriramulu once a powerful politician recognised with Bellary Reddy brothers has been struggling to keep his political identity intact. Sriramulu, a powerful ST leader in Bellary, Koppala and Chitradurga districts, is expected to win at least two seats in the ensuing elections for BJP.
According to the BJP sources, the merger formalities will be over in a week’s time and has got green signal from the party high command. A senior BJP leader told The Pioneer that senior party leader Arun Jaitley is expected arrive on Wednesday in Bangalore to finalise the list of candidates for all the 28 lok Sabha constituencies. He said, “We have got green signal from the party for the merger of BSR party led by Sriramulu. It is politically very significant. We are consolidating backward classes and STs to take on the Congress under Siddaramaiah who is playing vote bank politics to the hilt.”
According to BJP sources there was a strong resentment against admitting Sriramulu by senior party leader Sushma Swaraj after the arrest of Janardhana Reddy and others by the CBI. But it seems there was a consensus arrived in view of getting one or two more seats in Karnataka which would boost the prospects of Narendra Modi to the top post. “The allegations of illegal mining had made Sushma Swaraj distance herself from the Bellary trio - G Karunakara Reddy, G Janardhan Reddy and Sriramulu. The arrest of Janardhan Reddy and his close associates Anand Singh, B Nagendra and TH Suresh Babu by the CBI on charges of illegal mining and export of ore from Belikere port further complicated the issue of re-entry. However, the state leaders have succeeded in convincing their central leaders about the need for having Sriramulu as he himself has no case against him” the sources added.
In the event of merger, Sriramulu belonging to Naik community (Scheduled Tribe) would be asked to contest from Bellary lok Sabha constituency replacing his sister J Shantha. But political pundits feel it was going to be tough task for Sriramulu who has to take on Congress party’s heavy weight NY Hanumanthappa who was defeated by Sriramulu’s sister J Shantha by just 2000 votes when Reddy brothers were very powerful and playing their poetics to the hilt. But the party feels Sriramulu’s entry would boost its prospectus in two constituencies.