bengaluru turf war between four politicians including three former ministers might have led to the snowballing of a petty issue into a fullblown riot in east bengaluru on tuesday night police sources said citing preliminary investigationsthe three former ministers felt threatened by the growth of the local mla akhanda srinivasamurthy the trio is suspected to have used a former corporator as a cats paw to corner the lawmaker the former corporator too felt his influence was on the wane due to the mla and saw a chance to resurrect himself by joining forces with the three exministers a senior police officer explainedthe mlas growing clout in awarding government and civic tenders was resented by the trio a few days ago posters announcing that the mla was missing along with his photograph had appeared all over kavalbyrasandra the matter even reached police who took an undertaking from the man who distributed and pasted these handbills he saida facebook post offending a communitys sensibilities put up by the mlas kin provided a perfect opportunity to gang up against the elected representative he saidtill 7pm things were normal there was only a demand for legal action against the fb post and the aggrieved approached both the mla as well as police but in no time the mobs swelled the mobs tactics had a guerilla element to them raising doubts that they were planned in advance the officer arguedone of the 19 prime accused named in the fir is a close confidant of one of the exministers the accused had direct links with the exminister and his office when the latter was in power the officer saidaccording to senior police officials a former mayor too is on their radar for his nexus with one of the suspectsthe bbmps term is coming to an end next month and two ambitious youth leaders are aspiring to be the next corporator from sagayapuram ward where most of the violence took place one of them is naveen nephew of srinivasamurthy while the other is muzamil pasha from the social democratic party of indiahome minister basavaraj bommai said police suspect local political rivalry to be behind this incident there are many political factions in that area and their rivalry could have culminated in the violence the organised attack on the local mla also suggests that it was a preplanned one only indepth investigations can unravel the truthsome local congress leaders suspect the rivalry between naveen and pasha might have played a role in the violence pasha who had unsuccessfully contested the municipal polls once had been working to consolidate muslim votes and he allegedly made use of the controversial fb post