Congress leader K.C Kondaiah is remembered in political circles as an ardent admirer of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Indian National Congress, who gave up his Ballari Lok Sabha seat for AICC president Ms Sonia Gandhi in the 13th Lok Sabha election and was instrumental in her win from Ballari against BJP senior leader Ms Sushma Swaraj in 1999. Mr Kondaiah again shot into the limelight when he launched a political fight against the once-powerful Ballari Reddy brothers and their associates over their alleged involvement in the illegal iron ore mining scam. He petitioned law enforcing agencies against the Reddys’ mining scam and invited the wrath of the mine barons.
At the peak of former BJP minister Janardhan Reddy’s political hegemony over the ‘Republic of Ballari,’ Mr Kondaiah asserted that he was a ‘politician in exile’ from 'Ballari country’ and required s visa to enter his homeland! A two-time Lok Sabha member, Mr Kondaiah was recently elected to the state Legislative Council. The 65-year-old businessman turned politician, spoke at length about his political stint in an interview with Deccan Chronicle. Excerpts:
After being a member of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council twice, you have won the Council election from the local bodies constituency. Don’t you think you have come a step down in your career?
After my unsuccessful attempts to secure a ticket in the 2012 Council election, 2013 Assembly election and 2014 Council election, I decided to contest this election in 2015 since it would enable me to get accessibility to 9 assembly constituencies, 8 taluk panchayats, 237 gram panchayats and two zilla panchayats. Moreover, the panchayat raj system is something I am interested in as I am the one who fought for bestowing voting powers on gram panchayat members in the Council election by tabling an amendment to the Panchayat Raj Act in the Lok Sabha as a Lok Sabha member in 1996.
It is a fact that you were the brain behind the Congress party’s Ballari Padayatra from Bengaluru against illegal mining in 2010 that brought the party to power in the 2013 assembly election. Why did you go into political oblivion for three years after 2012?
They know very well that I put my life at stake and did a lot of hard work to expose the multi-crore mining scam in Ballari. For that work, I was not rewarded and instead, I was sidelined in the party for three years. Even I do not know what the reason was.
Who are the ‘They’ you are referring to?
They means the Congress party, I cannot name any individual.
Hailing from the backward weaver community, you led a campaign backing Lingayat leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa for the KPCC president’s post ahead of the 2013 assembly polls against KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar and this was the reason you did not get a ticket to contest from Ballari city assembly constituency.
It’s a closed chapter and I have decided not to speak much on this ‘gone case’.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who led the Ballari padayatra, did not seem interested in rewarding you as you had identified yourself with the camp of veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge. Comment.
I am on good terms with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. My relationship with Khargeji is not new. I am with him since my days as a steel industrialist in 1990.When I got elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996, Khargeji was leader of opposition in the state assembly and it was then that I started my political interaction with him.
Then, how do you rate the performance of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the last two and a half year?
He has taken a lot of social and political initiatives to improve the socio-economic condition of the downtrodden. As a senior Congressman, I am satisfied with his performance and have no doubts that he is delivering pro-people governance.
But in the Congress party, some leaders say you will become a powerful minister if Mallikarjun Kharge becomes Chief Minister.
This is all imagination and speculation of those leaders. The party high command will decide everything.
People close to you say you are now a strong aspirant to become minister, but women and child welfare minister Umashree, who also belongs to your weaver community is a hurdle to your entry into the Siddaramaiah cabinet. Is it true?
Inducting a legislator into the cabinet is always the prerogative of the Chief Minister who decides his team of ministers. Caste, gender, region and other factors come into consideration at the time of allotting tickets to aspirants in the general elections, but the same factors cannot be parameters for inducting a legislator into the cabinet. Here, the CM will go by merit and nothing else.
So, you rate yourself as a meritorious legislator to become a minister?
(Smiles)…CM will decide on this.
How do you propose to make an impact in the Legislative Council?
I got elected from a specific voters constituency-the Ballari local bodies seat. There are 25 members from this segment in the 75-member Council. Hence, I strongly feel we should create a forum of these 25 members irrespective of party affiliations and work together in the Council for strengthening the panchayat raj system. In this regard, I have already written to the 24 other members seeking their support. A forum of this kind is necessary to confer the ‘Kerala model’ kind of executive powers on gram panchayats in Karnataka.
You are believed to be an arch rival of the Reddy minelords. But, on the eve of the recent Council elections, political circles were abuzz with reports that the minelords and Ballari BJP MP B. Sriramulu entered into a tacit understanding with you and put up a ‘mild fight’ against you to ensure your victory. Comment.
I don’t know. But, it may be their political strategy. I agree that some ‘invisible hands’ helped me win this election.
