With the Congress, after its impressive victory in the byelection and considering it to have regained its lost citadel since 2004, in a buoyant mood, the BJP in the district appears to be in a shambles. For, the hold of the BJP, under the stewardship of Janardhan Reddy, former Minister accused of involvement in illegal mining, and his close associate B. Sriramulu, MLA, State BJP vice-president and Valmiki community strongman, had enjoyed in the district, is fading away.
The Congress has already decided to field V.S. Ugrappa, incumbent MP, as its candidate, while the BJP is groping in the dark to chose a winnable candidate.
The Ballari Parliamentary seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes since 2008.
With Mr. Reddy being away from the district, after being barred by the Supreme Court, Mr. Sriramulu is sulking for obvious reasons. This was evident when the party could win only three out of the total nine Assembly seats in the elections in 2018 and also suffered a defeat in the recent byelections to the Lok Sabha from Ballari Parliamentary seat, which it held since 2004.
In the 2008 elections to the Assembly, BJP had won eight of nine seats. In the 2013 elections, when Mr. Reddy had been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation and lodged in jail, the party could win only two seats.
However, Mr. Sriramulu, who contested the Lok Sabha election in 2014, won with a big margin of 85,000 votes. But in the byelection, which was necessitated after he resigned to contest in the Assembly election, J. Shanta, his sister and former MP, lost with a huge margin of 2.43 lakh.
Replaced
What has come as another setback for the Reddy group is that the BJP has replaced Mr. Sriramulu with former Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar as election in-charge of the district.
Hitherto, Janardhan Reddy and Sriramulu used to call the shots in selecting candidates and ensuring victory. Most candidates chosen by them were from their own families. With the change of guard, to what extent Mr. Sriramulu, who has been made in-charge of the neighbouring Koppal district, will be able to have his say in the selection, is the question.
Rumours
Rumours abound that the BJP had planned to field a person from outside the district and the name of Lakhan Jarkiholi is doing the rounds here.
Appointing Mr. Shettar as district in-charge has also led to lot of discussion, particularly about whether this was a tactical move or was done after losing hope in Mr. Sriramulu.
All said and done, the outcome of the Lok Sabha election would provide an answer on whether the move of BJP was right or Mr. Sriramulu will be indispensable for the party in the district.
