Santosh Lad
G. Janardhana Reddy.
Leaders and legislators hailing from Ballari, which is part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, seem to be a source of much political upheaval in Karnataka, going by recent history. This has been the case since the time illegal mining hit national and international headlines in the 2000s and the place gained reputation as “Republic of Ballari”.
Scam
In the latest case, four-time MLA B. Nagendra resigned as Minister for Scheduled Tribes Welfare, Youth Empowerment and Sports amid allegations of multi-crore illegal transfer of money from the State-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd. He represents Ballari Rural in the Legislative Assembly.
In 2013, during the first term of Mr. Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister, Santosh Lad had quit the Ministry within the first few months of the government formation.
Though he was elected from Kalghatgi constituency in Dharwad district, he hails from Sandur in Ballari. He resigned in November 2013 facing the heat over allegations of illegal mining.
He was then the Minister of State for Information and Infrastructure. He was elected from Sandur on JD (S) ticket in 2004.
Former Labour Minister P.T. Parameshwara Naik, who was elected from Hoovinahadagali, earlier part of Ballari and now part of Vijayanagara district, quit the Ministry during the Congress government (2013-18) following the alleged “insult” meted out to Anupama Shenoy, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kudligi, in Ballari district, and interference in the police officer’s work.
When Reddy ruled
Long before all this, the “Republic of Ballari” had hogged the limelight in 2011 following a report released by the then Lokayutaka N. Santosh Hedge on illegal mining in the district.
Subsequently, G. Janardhana Reddy resigned and was arrested in the same year by the CBI for his alleged role in illegal mining. Mr. Reddy’s loyalist B. Sriramulu too resigned from the Ministry then.
In the first round of the infamous “Operation Lotus” in Karnataka in 2008, Mr. Reddy was accused of using illegal mining money to secure support from legislators bypassing the anti-defection law to bring the BJP to power in Karnataka, led by B.S. Yediyurappa.
Before the 2023 Assembly polls, Mr. Reddy had been politically inactive for several years. In the 2023 elections, he formed his own party — Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha — and was elected from Gangavati. Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Reddy merged his party with the BJP.
Another leader from Ballari with a chequered political career is B.S. Anand Singh, one of the 17 members to resign and bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition government of Karnataka in 2019. He then joined the BJP and contested the byelections and won.
M.Y. Ghorpade
In contrast to these leaders, there was a time when the region was better known for its Congress leader, the late M.Y. Ghorpade of the erstwhile princely state of Sandur.
He was known for his wildlife photography and had a postgraduate degree in Economics from Cambridge University. He tendered his resignation as Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister in the early 1990s over the delay in holding elections to the panchayat bodies as per the 73th amendment to the Constitution.
