Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll is being seen as an extension of the rivalry on display in the May election, when Siddaramaiah defeated Sriramulu from Badami.
Bengaluru: The official candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress for the 3 November Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll in Karnataka are J. Shantha and V.S. Ugrappa, respectively.
But political observers know the election is really a contest between their two powerful backers: Shantha is the sister of B. Sriramulu, the seat’s former representative and a close confidant of mining-scam-accused Janardhan Reddy, while Ugrappa is a close aide of former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah.
The election is being seen as an extension of the rivalry on display in the May assembly election when Siddaramaiah defeated Sriramulu from Badami by a whisper of a margin, 1,696 votes.
The bypoll was necessitated by Sriramulu’s resignation as MP, which came as the BJP launched a failed mission to claim power in the state after the party emerged the biggest player in the assembly election.
The Ballari candidates, Ugrappa and Shantha, have been known to be aggressive campaigners, but both seem to be maintaining a rather low profile this time around, with their star campaigners Siddaramaiah and Sriramulu taking the lead.
While Siddaramaiah’s weapon has been the alleged multi-crore mining scam, Sriramulu has been trying hard to convince his vote bank that the BJP is their only hope as the Congress had left the district “cash-starved”.
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‘Republic of Ballari’
Battleground Ballari, a Congress stronghold since the 1950s to the early 2000s, has been the centre of intense electoral contests for years, especially since 1999, when the BJP’s Sushma Swaraj unsuccessfully contested the seat against former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Mining baron Janardhan Reddy and his brothers have grown quite powerful in the region over the years. In his report on the alleged mining scam run by the brothers in Ballari, former Karnataka lokayukta Santosh Hegde gave the area the sobriquet “Republic of Ballari” to emphasise their absolute control.
Over the years, Sriramulu, too, established himself as a powerful local player in the shadow of the Reddys.
V.S. Ugrappa, Siddaramaiah’s associate
Ugrappa, a Congress MLC, was widely seen as a surprise choice for the election, but the party evidently seeks to cash in on his image as an active campaigner against the alleged illegal mining carried out by the Reddys.
Ugrappa hails from Pavagada in Tumkuru district, which, like Ballari, is a Telugu-speaking area, another reason why the Congress may have chosen him.
However, the “outsider” tag may prove a challenge for Ugrappa, with the BJP relentlessly playing that card in their campaign. The Congress, however, says the insider-outsider debate holds no water in Ballari.
“How can he call me an outsider?” Ugrappa told ThePrint. “Sriramulu himself stood from Molkalmuru and Badami (in the assembly election) even though he did not belong to that district,” he added.
“Ballari has the unique distinction of voting in favour of outsiders,” he said. “If Ballari was their (Reddy brothers’) kingdom, why did Sriramulu not contest from here? Clearly, he has no weight in the constituency.”
Congress insiders told ThePrint that Siddaramaiah suggested Ugrappa’s name to checkmate the Jarkhioli brothers, who have been at loggerheads with state power minister and key party player D.K. Shivakumar.
Ugrappa said he was very confident of winning the seat, as his campaign was pegged on proving “how communal the BJP has been and how the Congress has been democratic in their governance”.
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Shantha, Sriramulu’s sister
Being the sister of Sriramulu, who is now an MLA, Shantha was the BJP’s obvious choice for the seat.
With the backing of her powerful brother, the BJP hopes to retain the former Congress stronghold, which they have held since 2004. Shantha is a former MP, elected to the Lok Sabha from Ballari in 2009.
The entire brass of the state BJP has put its weight behind Shantha in this prestige battle, with Shobha Karandlaje, C.T. Ravi, Basavaraj Bommai and V. Somanna campaigning for her over the last few weeks.
There were whispers that former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, also the state BJP chief, delayed deploying the heavyweights for the campaign because he was reportedly miffed about talk earlier this year that Sriramulu was a contender for the chief minister’s post. However, now the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to ensure her win.