Karnataka bypolls:Congress-JD(S) combine take big lead in BJP fort Ballari

Manglore Today News Network

Ballari, Nov 06, 2018 : Congress’ VS Ugrappa was leading over the BJP’s J Shantha on Tuesday by more than 1,74,000 votes in Ballari parliamentary seat, which was among the five assembly and parliamentary seats in Karnataka where bypolls were held last Saturday, after counting of votes for the 12th round.

 

The by-election to the Ballari Lok Sabha seat saw a pitched battle with both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling Congress-Janata Dal(Secular) alliance going all out to capture the seat.

The bypolls in Ballari took place following the resignation of BJP’ssitting Lok Sabha member B Sreeramulu after he won the assembly election from Molkalmuru in Chitradurga district.

Sreeramulu has much at stake in Ballari, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribe communities. He vacated the seat after he was elected to the assembly in May, and the party tried and failed to stake a claim to form the government, despite having won the highest number of seats.

The BJP fielded his sister Shantha, who is a former MP, and she was up against member of the legislative council Ugrappa, who was backed by the JD(S). The names of these two candidates appeared on the electronic voting machines but they have been proxies for the battles fought by other leaders.

Sreeramulu, on the one hand, has battled the Congress’ DK Shivakumar — who has been given charge of winning the seat — and on the other, mining baron G Janardhan Reddy has fought an ugly battle with his bete noire, former chief minister Siddaramaiah.

The BJP banked on its local leaders to do the job and pointed to the fact that Ugrappa is an outsider to the district. The Congress-JD(S) alliance pulled out all stops and one-time bitter rivals Siddaramaiah and his mentor, the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, united to try and prove that a broad coalition could defeat the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections.

The Congress had won six of the nine assembly seats in the district in the assembly elections and seemed to be pulling through thanks to this. Ballari recorded a turnout of 63.85% in the election held on Saturday, down from 70.29% in 2014. There are 17.13 lakh voters in the Lok Sabha constituency.

The ruling Congress-JD(S) are ahead of the BJP in four out of five seats in early trends as votes are counted in a Karnataka by-election billed as a semi-final before Lok Sabha polls next year. The by-elections to three Lok Sabha and two assembly seats are seen as a crucial test for the ruling alliance, forged after state elections in May this year to keep out single largest party BJP.