Column

It was on Friday the 13th, that the chief minister and his revenue minister came face to face after a good three weeks.

Ominous, you think? Depends on how superstitious you are. Actually, depends on how superstitious the main actors are, and given Mr Yeddyurappa’s current plight, faith and superstition are probably the only remaining hope.

Some simple issues of protocol are enough to let you gape in wonder. From the time the Reddy brothers declared a war on the chief minister, there has been no meeting ground, not only metaphorically but actually physically, until Yeddyurappa buckled under pressure.

Even after that, it looks like the truce brought about by the party high command has been extremely uneasy. The Bellary brothers continue to be belligerent. Revenue minister Karunakara Reddy, who skipped the first big cabinet meeting after peace was brokered between the two factions, perhaps deliberately, finally got the chief minister to join him in the housing programme that they have launched on their own in the flood-hit areas of North Karnataka. You do not need any more evidence of the clout his family enjoys now.

The Reddy brothers probably commanded as much clout before the war broke out in the ruling party. But it was never on public display in such a grandiose manner until now. They seem to have got everyone to agree and fulfil their every whim and fancy. Only Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay could have managed such a display of power, that too during the Emergency; not in otherwise normal times.

Going by what has happened in the last few days, it looks like they will most likely have the rest of the acts and scenes play out according to their script. The next act in the drama is the one that is going to be pretty complex, and will determine the fate of the ruling party in the long run.

Evidence available so far suggests that the chief minister will no longer be in a position to pick his colleagues. The dissident faction and the party high command, no matter how weak it is, will have a say. The process of reshuffling the ministry will have to happen soon; certainly before the legislature session next month, even if there is to be only a small scale expansion next week to induct Jagadish Shettar.

If they manage to have the cabinet recast the way they want, getting ministers of their choice to replace those who have fallen foul, the Reddy brothers’ hold over the government would be complete. Politics, however, is not that simple, and both the chief minister’s camp and the non-aligned originals in the party are bound to try and carve as big a piece of pie as they could.

The Reddy brothers probably have another compelling reason to strengthen their position in the state. It looks like they are facing music in Andhra Pradesh where their business interests are as extensive, if not more, as in Karnataka. It looks like the government and the opposition Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh have made common cause against the Reddy brothers, forcing an inquiry into their business practices. It, therefore, makes sense for them to shore up their political clout in Karnataka so that they could later attribute political motives for their troubles. Janardhana Reddy has already done that by accusing Chandrababu Naidu of raising questions about his mining company only because of his connection with the late YS Rajashekhara Reddy.

Unlike the other politico-business families in Karnataka — the Lad brothers of Bellary or the Jarkhiholis of Belgaum, the Reddy brothers have so far remained loyal to a single party, the BJP. If for others, the hedging mechanism works across the political spectrum, for the Reddy brothers, protecting their interests rests on complete control instead of diffused influence. That, probably, explains in some measure their pursuit of absolute power.