In Ballari, battle for supremacy between DKS and Sreeramulu

BALLARI: In a contest that appears evenly poised for the nominees of the Congress-JD(S) combine and the BJP, in which caste and candidates are secondary, the outcome of the Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll will decide the political supremacy of water resources minister D K Shivakumar and BJP MLA B Sreeramulu in the district.
A Congress win seat will give Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader, a foothold in north Karnataka, where he faces fierce political rivalry from the sugar barons of Belagavi, the Jarkiholi brothers who represent the Valmiki community.For Sreeramulu, if the BJP were to retain the seat, it would be another step toward emerging as an alternative to state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa.
In this battle between Congress-JDS candidate V S Ugrappa and BJP’s J Shantha, two factors are clearly at play: Funds and ‘candidate fatigue’. A decade after the 2008 assembly polls, in which Ballari set the benchmark for cash-for-votes, as the Election Commission of India admitted, the situation in the district is unchanged. The golden era of mining — which made some people wildly prosperous and fuelled an atmosphere of fear — may have ended but voter expectations of polling booth handouts have not waned.
It is equally obvious that a streak of fatigue now weighs down former mining czar G Janardhana Reddy and Sreeramulu, whose families have represented the parliamentary constituency from 2004. Much will depend on how the Congress tries to cash in on this and seize a constituency that was a party bastion till 2004.
Aware of this, KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao said: “Our candidate brings a different kind of personality to the table. The ‘outsider’ tag for Ugrappa is no longer relevant. We can wrest the seat from the BJP.”
The constituency is reserved for the scheduled tribes and Sreeramulu is acknowledged as the leader of Valmiki community across party lines just as former PM H D Deve Gowda is for the Vokkaligas. The Congress is trying to break this monopoly by projecting Ugrappa too as a Valmiki leader.
Congress and JD(S) workers may be at loggerheads in four other constituencies heading to byelections, but the Congress has no such concern in Ballari, with a JD(S) presence close to nil till party supremo H D Deve Gowda’s joint rally on Monday with former CM Siddaramaiah.
The impending cabinet expansion after the bypolls has become a carrot-and-stick affair for Congress MLAs in the district. Of the eight assembly segments, the party represents six and four of them — B Nagendra, Anand Singh, P T Parameshwara Naik and E Tukaram — are ministerial aspirants. The stakes are high for B Nagendra (Ballari Rural), whose brother Venkatesh Prasad was a frontrunner for the bypoll ticket.
Under Shivakumar, who is known for his organisational skills, a team of young Congress members, including ministers, from outside the district has taken over Ballari. Ministers Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byregowda and U T Khader have been given charge of assembly segments, Khader has brought supporters from Mangaluru to the constituency and minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan and MLC C M Ibrahim have been big draws with Muslim voters.
But factionalism has divided the Congress’ district unit. The party is banking on Ugrappa to draw maximum votes from educated voters in Ballari city, but is sceptical of taking a lead in rural Ballari.
Shantha’s brother Sreeramulu has emerged as the BJP candidate’s lone star campaigner, although he does have support from BJP MLAs V Somanna and C T Ravi. Her daughter’s recent marriage into a local Congress family has resulted in son-in-law Pavan Kumar sharing the dais with her. State BJP president B S Yeddyurappa, focused on his son B Y Raghavendra’s contest in the Shivamoga Lok Sabha seat, has only breezed in and out of the constituency.
WHO HAS THE EDGE?
The Congress admits that the BJP has the edge (a 70:30 ratio) with the Valmiki community. The Congress is banking on Lingayats, Kurubas and Muslims along with ST votes.