Karnataka: Reddy loyalists skip assembly

BANGALORE: Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is in for difficult days with mining magnates, the Reddy brothers and their loyalists keeping it on tenterhooks about their plans.Two of the Reddy brothers, Gali Karunakara and Gali Somashekara, and two followers H.T. Suresh Babu and B. Nagendra Monday stayed away from the assembly on the first day of the legislature's winter session here.The third Reddy, Gali Janardhana, is in Hyderabad's Chanchalaguda Jail in connection with an illegal mining case in Andhra Pradesh.The 12-day winter session started a day after Reddy brothers' associate and former BJP minister B. Sriramulu won a thumping victory in the bypoll to Bellary Rural assembly seat, which he contested as Independent after resigning from the party.Sriramulu did not take oath as member of the house Monday as he wants to first meet Janardhana Reddy in the Hyderabad jail to thank him for his support in the battle against the BJP in the bypoll. BJP candidate P. Gadilingappa, a Bellary businessman, lost his security deposit.Though Sriramulu said Sunday soon after his victory that he and the Reddy brothers were not planning to topple the Gowda government, the first test will come Dec 14 or 15 when the assembly will take up a no-trust move against Speaker K.G. Bopaiah.The Congress has moved the no-confidence motion against Bopaiah, alleging that he has not been impartial in conducting the assembly proceedings.The BJP has 119 members, including the speaker, and the support of one Independent in the 225-member house that has one nominated member.The Reddy brothers and Sriramulu claim the support of around 14 BJP assembly members.Unsure of how Reddy brothers' will act in the coming days, the BJP has begun wooing five other Independents who had helped it form the party's first government in the state in May 2008.State party chief K.S. Eshwarappa also claims that several Congress and Janata Dal-Secular legislators "are interested in joining the BJP".The party has suspended four state lawmakers and two Lok Sabha members for supporting Sriramulu in the bypoll held Nov 30. They are Somashekara Reddy, Suresh Babu and Nagendra (all assembly members), Mrutyunajaya Jinaga (legislative council), and J. Shanta and Sanna Fakirappa (Lok Sabha members).