3 mining lords look to ascend the iron throne

BALLARI: It’s a triangular clash of mining lords in Ballari city this assembly election. While two have represented the constituency once each, the third is hoping to emerge the dark horse.
The BJP has fielded G Somashekara Reddy, youngest of the Reddy brothers, the Congress has renominated its sitting MLA Anil H Lad, another mining czar, and the JD(S) has poached Congress aspirant Mohammed Iqbal Hottur, who is also into mining and transportation business.
Unlike the last two assembly elections, there is no mention of mining or free flow of cash. But there are enough complaints from citizens who say there’s hardly been any development in their city.
The roads of Ballari, which bore the weight of truckloads of iron ore, have seen no repair. Drinking water supply is restricted to once a fortnight in most parts of the city, and constituents say that neither of the elected representatives – councillor or MLA – are concerned about it.

The common charge against Lad is his inaccessibility. However an aide defends Lad saying: “It is not necessary that Lad should be available in person as long as he gets things done in his constituency. Did liquor baron Vijay Mallya visit any of his constituencies as Rajya Sabha MP? His staff was managing the show.”
The inaccessibility tag has come in handy for the BJP to trump up support for Reddy, who was earlier a councillor in the Ballari city corporation before his stint as an MLA from 2008 to 2013. “During that five-year term, Reddy demonstrated how a city can be developed,” says Patel Sidda Reddy, a former government pleader.
Faced with this mighty anti-incumbency wave, Lad’s only refuge is the Congress party tag. Though a divided house in the district, the Congress’ goodwill of yesteryears still runs large, making it a tough contest for Reddy. But a hopeful BJP worker says: “Things will smoothen once BJP MP B Sreeramulu does a round of the constituency.”
In this one-on-one contest, Hottur is attempting to make inroads from a party which has no presence in the district. He was a ticket aspirant in 2013 but had to step back when his relative and Congressman H Abdul Wahab was given the ticket from Vijayanagar. The latter was defeated by BJP’s BS Anand Singh, who is now contesting from the same constituency on a Congress ticket.
“I admit JD(S) does not have a cadre in Ballari district. But whoever left JD(S), be it chief minister Siddaramaiah, minister R Roshan Baig, have blossomed. The city has 58,000 Muslim voters, who have no choice but to vote for the Congress. I decided to take the plunge and join the JD(S) in December 2017, instead of being a mere watcher or a fencesitter in the Congress,” 56-year-old Hottur said.
Ballari has nine assembly segments of which five are reserved for STs and two each for SCs and general category.