Will Ballari Lad brothers survive poll debacle?
The brothers were considered heavyweights in the government at the time owing to their proximity to the Chief Minister.
Ballari: Like the Reddy brothers, the Lad brothers too have lorded over the ore- rich district of Ballari for years. But the recent assembly election put a break on the winning spree of the mining barons-turned politicians, cousins, Anil H Lad and Santosh S Lad, who were defeated from Ballari city and Kalaghatgi assembly constituency in Dharwad district respectively.
With the Supreme Court cancelling the iron ore mining lease of their family owned company, VS Lad and Sons in Ballari for alleged irregularities, the Lad brothers are no longer into mining and now it appears they are having to depend on some backroom maneovering to stay relevant politically as well.
Going by sources Mr Santosh Lad could try to make his hand-picked legislator the Minister from Ballari district, where the Congress has won six out of nine seats.
The Lad brothers shot into political limelight in 2006 when they were instrumental in the formation of the JD(S) - BJP coalition government led by Mr Kumaraswamy. The brothers were considered heavyweights in the government at the time owing to their proximity to the Chief Minister.
But they switched sides ahead of the 2008 assembly elections, to join the Congress. The delimitation exercise, however, left the Lad cousins searching for other assembly constituencies as both Sandur and Kudligi were reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
Mr Santosh Lad, who was close to former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah went to become a minister in his government , but was forced to step down after crusader against illegal mining, SR Hiremath and freedom fighter, HS Doreswamy demanded that the Congress drop him over his family owned company being charged with involvement in illegal mining.
But after a gap of a year and a half , Mr Santosh Lad returned to the Siddaramaiah cabinet as Labour Minister and also served as Ballari district in -charge Minister.