With the Election Commission sounding bugle for the assembly elections in Karnataka in May, all eyes are now on what mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy would do.
During the last assembly elections in 2012, Gali was in jail in connection with the Central Bureau of Investigation into the illegal mining of iron ore at Obulapuram.
He was running through a bad phase then, as the Bharatiya Janata Party had sacked him and his followers from the party. He was politically and financially down then.
Now that he is out on bail and has got back most of his glory, Gali is planning to contest the assembly elections in the state.
According to reports, he is likely to contest from Bellary on BJP ticket this time. Though there was no confirmation either from the BJP or from Gali himself, reports said his brother Somasekhar Reddy revealed it to a section of media. Both the brothers are still claiming allegiance to former chief minister B S Yedyurappa.
However, there are also reports that Gali might not contest the elections, but might field his wife Aruna Lakshmi from BTM Layout assembly constituency in Bengaluru city. She is said to be trying for the BJP ticket this time.
At present, BTM Layout constituency is represented by Karnataka home minister R Ramalinga Reddy, who is a popular leader.
It was Reddy who had successfully brokered the deal between the Congress and Janata Dal (S) whenever differences cropped up over sharing of the posts of mayor and deputy mayor in the BBMP elections every year.
If BJP does not want to give the party ticket to Aruna Lakshmi on the pretext of overcoming the negative factor of Gali, she might contest as an independent.
The BJP would then field a dummy candidate so as to make her win easy. After the elections, she might be taken into the party officially, say sources.
