Outside their turf, two lords of Ballari find it tough this time

Two long-time rivals who lorded over the mining district of Ballari all through the 2000s –– B Sriramulu of BJP and Santosh S Lad of Congress –– who are currently contesting from outside their home turfs, are finding their electoral journey tougher than anticipated.
Both had spent their time living the high life, till the mining scam surfaced in 2011. Neither of them has cases against them, but both were singed by the fallout that dried up a lot of their funds.

Sriramulu, 46, a scheduled tribes leader, is contesting for the first time from outside Ballari district, at Molkalmuru in neighbouring Chitradurga. At the behest of the BJP leadership, he is also contesting from a second seat, Badami, where he will be facing chief minister Siddaramaiah.

But Sriramulu’s confidence that he can win from any seat in the state appears misplaced, even in the reserved constituency of Molkalmuru. The seat was held by his follower GH Thippeswamy. Sriramulu was so certain of victory that he told ET: “I am not even going to campaign in Molkalmuru.” However, Thippeswamy is now contesting as an independent.

“The crowd that came with him to file the nomination was as big as Sriramulu’s. And unlike Sriramulu, Thippeswamy is poor, he cannot afford to pay the crowd s , ” voter L Thippeswamy said. However, Sriramulu’s larger-than-life image and easy demeanour, seem to be a huge plus.

Matching Sriramulu in flamboyance is Santosh Lad, labour minister in the Siddaramaiah government. Lad is contesting for the third time from Kalghatgi and though he won in 2008 and 2013, the hope that he created among the people of this constituency seems to be backfiring on him.

“We don’t even know where Lad saab will be… in Bengaluru, Delhi, London? We have no access to him and cannot reach him for any problems we are facing,” voter Javed in Kalghatgi said.