Congress MLA arrested for assault ‘thrashed’ the colleague who helped his political launch

Karnataka MLA J.N. Ganesh allegedly beat up and threatened his party colleague Anand Singh at a resort near Bengaluru in January. He was arrested Wednesday.

File photo of Congress MLA J.N. Ganesh | Facebook

Bengaluru: Congress MLA J.N. Ganesh has become a household name in Karnataka after he allegedly assaulted another lawmaker from his party, Vijayanagara MLA Anand Singh last month. After an argument turned ugly, Ganesh allegedly attacked Singh with a flower pot at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru, on 20 January.

He was arrested a month after the assault, on Wednesday.

Who is Kampli Ganesh?

Until the assault on Singh, Ganesh was not very well-known in the state’s political circles, except in his area Hospet, near Ballari. He comes from a farmers’ family and did not pursue his education beyond Class 12. After dropping out, Ganesh became a local debt recovery agent along with a few friends. He was the go-to person for those who wanted their money back from a loanee.

Ganesh’s entry into politics was not accidental as his father J.N. Venkobba was a well-known corporator in Hosur, Ballari.

He became quite popular in his area and notorious as a recovery agent. Several cases of assault were filed against him, but his brutal attack on a circle inspector in 2006 stood out.

An attempt-to-murder case was filed against him and he was listed as a rowdy-sheeter.

Belonging to the Nayaka community, an influential OBC caste in the Ballari region, Ganesh slowly began working for the local RSS unit. He would help organise workshops and increase enrolment for the Right-wing organisation.

“He would regularly attend meetings of the RSS and would help the organisation during their membership drive,” a resident of Hospet told ThePrint.

Just before the 2013 elections, Singh, a close associate of the Ballari Reddy brothers and a mining baron himself, had been scouting for fresh talent and spotted Ganesh.

At the time, Singh was with the BJP and later introduced Ganesh to mining baron Janardhan Reddy. Thus began Ganesh’s political climb.

In 2013, Ganesh wanted to contest the Assembly elections from Kampli but realised that the BJP was not prepared to give him a ticket. He then decided to shift to the Congress, but there too he was unsuccessful. Finally, he contested as an Independent and lost to the then incumbent, MLA T.H. Suresh Babu of the Badavara Shramikara Raitara Congress (BSRC) by 36,462 votes.

However, his fortunes reversed in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections when, after joining hands with the Congress, he won the Kampli seat — defeating Babu by a margin of 5,555 votes.

“Ganesh has always been close to Anand Singh. But this time, at the resort, when the BJP tried to poach him through Operation Kamala, he was ready to shift to the BJP. Anand Singh was instrumental in talking him out of the deal,” said a source close to Ganesh’s family.

“However, in the last few months, Ganesh has grown ‘too big for his boots’. Anand pointed this out to Ganesh and that lead to the argument between the two. It is believed that Anand also said that he may field his nephew Sandeep instead of him and that further angered Ganesh.”

Assault that busted Ganesh

BJP’s Operation Kamala did rattle the Karnataka Congress, which immediately hustled its 76 MLAs into a resort in Bidadi on the outskirts of Bengaluru. It is at the resort that Ganesh allegedly assaulted Singh, who had to be rushed to hospital.

Singh, who complained to the police, said that Ganesh had every intention to kill him at that time.

“When I asked him why he needed to drag my family into an argument, he (Ganesh) threatened to finish me off too. He used abusive language and later hit me with a wooden stick and smashed flowers pots on my face and head. He later pushed me against the wall and started shouting for a gun to finish me off. I fell to the ground and he began kicking me on my stomach and face…he kept repeating Die, Die,” Singh’s complaint said.

According to Singh, Ganesh also accused him of not helping him financially during the Assembly elections and said he would not spare Singh’s nephew Sandeep too.

A medical report from the hospital where Singh was admitted mentioned that he had sustained injuries to his head, face and the left side of his chest. He had also suffered from a huge clot near his nasal region and his eyes.

Soon after the incident, Ganesh went incommunicado. Two days later, he resurfaced to issue a statement to the media, admitting that he had assaulted Singh and apologised to the Vijayanagara legislator and his family.

Since then, the Kampli MLA had been absconding.

Karnataka’s Home Minister MB Patil had told the Print: “No one was above the law and every effort is being put to trace Ganesh. Action has been initiated against Mr Ganesh. A FIR has been registered against him and he has been suspended by our party leaders. The police are looking for him and he will be arrested soon. Neither the government, nor the police are under any pressure.

“If need be we will also open the rowdy sheet cases against him which were closed just before the assembly elections,” he added.

News agency PTI reported that prior to Ganesh’s arrest, a team of about 18 officers had carried out searches in Mumbai, Goa, Ballari and Hyderabad.