The glamour and glitz was missing as Bellary MLAs B. Sreeramulu and Gali Somashekara Reddy went about their annual task of organising a mass marriage programme to mark Varamahalakshmi puja here on Friday.
In previous years, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, whom the Reddy brothers used to fondly address as Thayee, was a regular face at the event but this time she did not attend after breaking away from the mine barons, who are allegedly involved in a a massive iron ore mining scam. She did not attend the programme in 2011 either but BJP national president Nitin Gadkari had made up for her absence.
There are fears that Somashekhar Reddy and Sreeramulu nephew and Kampli MLA, T.H. Suresh Babu, may be arrested in the cash for bail scam involving imprisoned mining baron Janardhan Reddy, which took the sheen off the programme, now in its fourteenth year.
The Reddy clan has suffered a split with elder brother Karunakar Redy identifying himself with the BJP while Janardhan and Somashekhar Reddy and Sreeramulu have launched a new party—BSR Congress.
The banners on main roads and at circles in the city announcing the event, were also limited in number. A mellowed down Sriramulu did not forget to refer to Ms Swaraj in his address to the newly wed couples: “People like Sushma Swaraj come here and go for political gain. Such people are not permanent friends. I believed all that is white is milk, but now, I realise my folly. There are no permanent friends and foes in politics. But I am not someone who seeks political benefit from you. My relationship with you is permanent”.
Refering to his mentor Janardhan Reddy, Sreeramulu said, “Some vested interests plotted to send him to jail as they were fearful of his riseand wanted to finish him off”.