M P Prakash joins Congress

Political realignments in the mining district of Bellary took an interesting turn last week when former deputy chief minister M P Prakash and his supporters formally quit the JD(S) and joined the Congress.

Prakash's move, which came on the eve of the assembly elections, is expected to change the poll dynamics in the district, which sees revenues of around Rs 5,000 crore per year from mining and export of iron ore.

With private mining companies controlling nearly 80 per cent of the land under lease for iron ore operations, the three major political parties "" Congress, BJP and JD(S) "" view Bellary as the golden goose.

The Congress, which is struggling to regain the district after losing the 2004 poll battle to the BJP, hopes to resurrect its image using Prakash in the coming assembly elections.

Prakash and his supporters including some former ministers walked into the Congress Bhavan in Bangalore during the weekend and announced their resolve to fight the elections under the stewardship of party supremo Sonia Gandhi. Prakash is another senior JD(S) leader who has joined the Congress after severing ties with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in the recent times.

"Prakash is important for our party as he, during his stint in the JD(S), had challenged the might of the BJP's Reddy brothers "" Bellary MP Karunakar Reddy, MLC Janardhan Reddy and former Bellary mayor Somashekar Reddy, who jointly own the Obalapuram Mining Company. We won only one seat in the 2004 assembly elections, but now with Prakash on our side we hope to gain control over the district which had been our stronghold since Independence," a senior Congress leader said.

Though Prakash reacted stating that the coming elections were a major challenge before him, the BJP leaders are unfazed.

"As elections will be held as per the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission, Prakash's constituency of Hadagali will cease to exist. With no ground for himself, how can Prakash cause a dent in our votebank?" question BJP leaders.

However, the Congress leaders contend that Prakash's entry has strengthened their party as his exit has weakened the JD(S) which was desperate to control the mining lobby. The Congress plans to leverage its popularity after Prakash's entry by organising a farmers' rally in Hospet in the first week of April.

Apart from strengthening its base in Bellary, the Congress also plans to use Prakash to lure the dominant Lingayat community to which he belongs.

The Lingayats, following the collapse of the JD(S)-BJP government, had begun to identify with the BJP. "We want to neutralise the BJP's plan by using Prakash," the Congress leader said.