Bellary (north Karnataka), May 4: In this mining country, it’s hardly 2008 once more for the ruling BJP.

The Reddy barons, who lorded over the region then, were with it and had splashed their wealth for the party in the elections that year.

Now they want to teach the BJP a “lesson” for having “cheated” them. When the 13-day campaign for the May 5 Assembly elections ended, the BJP looked a bit lost.

Bellary is the best known among the six districts that make up the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, an arid backward zone where temperatures cross 45 °C.

The dusty belt saw heavy electioneering, an indication of the stiff fight that looms ahead for the Congress, BJP, the Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and the BSR Congress.

While the Congress aims to pocket Bellary and the region this time, the BJP knows it cannot allow too much elbow room to the breakaway KJP and the BSR Congress.

The six districts, part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state, were once the bastion of the Congress. But the influence of the Reddy brothers — G. Somashekara Reddy, G. Janardhana Reddy and K. Karunakara Reddy — saw the BJP win eight of the nine seats in Bellary alone in 2008.

Those days are gone and the Reddys — who own OMC, the company that has been facing allegations of illegal mining — don’t wield the same clout. The Congress is already sensing victory in most of the seats in Bellary.

Heavyweights from all parties were out in the electoral slugfest, braving the oppressive heat and dust.

Perhaps the best known among them is B. Sriramulu, who broke away from the BJP in 2011 to form the BSR Congress. BSR stands for Badavara, Shramikara, Raithara, which roughly translates to the “Congress of the poor, workers and farmers”.

A mine lessee and a close associate of the Reddys, Sriramulu, is contesting from the Bellary (Scheduled Tribes) constituency against some little-known rivals fielded by the Congress and the BJP. With the full backing of the Reddy brothers, Sriramulu is a contender for the seat he won convincingly in a by-election last year.

The bypoll had followed the resignation of Sriramulu, then a BJP MLA.

“The BSR will teach a lesson to the BJP, which cheated all of us after they won seats with our efforts last time,” Somashekara Reddy told The Telegraph on Thursday.

In the most recent sampler, the BJP could not win a single seat from Bellary in the polls held for urban local bodies.

Somashekara, who in 2008 had defeated Anil Lad, the Congress candidate for Bellary City this time, did not hide his anger at the BJP. “They used us and threw us out, but we’ll show them what Bellary can do to them,” said Somashekara, who was out campaigning for the BSR in Bellarappa Colony.

Like the BSR, the KJP — the party formed by breakaway BJP leader and former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa — is also pitching heavily for the 42 seats in the six districts that make up the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. While it is sure to win a few, it is certain to spoil the BJP’s chances.

The BJP, the party that splashed wealth in 2008, thanks to the Reddys, projected a different image this time. “We represent the common people and the poor,” said Virupaksha Gouda, party candidate in Bellary City.