JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda who is in a calculated way pitching for Congress’ president Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 general elections has to face a litmus test in the battlefield Ballari, a by-election for Lok Saba on Saturday. The Congress candidate VS Ugrappa, supported by the coalition of JD(S) and Congress is facing the heat in the dusty terrain of Ballari where mining baron Reddy brothers are vigoursly campaigning for J Shantha of the BJP. Shantha is the sister of powerful Schedule Tribe leader J Sriramulu. Ballari is reserved ST constituency. The by election was necessitated by the resignation of Sriramulu from Lok Sabha as he had won the election to Karnataka Assembly.
Many insiders in the ruling Government feel it is really a tough fight taking on Reddy brothers and the stronghold of Sriramulu. It is also testing time for the JD(S)- Congress combine who dream of taking this unity to the 2019 general elections to fight the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
Karnataka is witnessing three by polls to Ballari, Shivamogga and Mandya and two assembly seats at Ramanagara and Jamakhandi on Saturday. Even though the elections are not an indicator of the future keeping in mind 2019 general elections, it is crucial for all the three political parties, Congress, BJP and JD(S) to establish their supremacy in the political sphere of the State.
In Jamakhandi, the late MLA’s son Anand Nyamagouda is contesting on Congress ticket, but faces serious challenge from BJP’s Shrikant Kulkarni. Kulkarni is a BJP veteran in local politics and confident of sailing through. At Ramanagara assembly constituency in an embarrassment to BJP its candidate L Chandrashekhar retired from the fray in support of Anita Kumaraswamy, the wife of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
At Shivamogga lok saba constituency which is facing by polls after Lingayat strongman BS Yeddyurappa got elected to assembly, his son BY Raghavendra is contesting and fighting a fierce battle facing the son of former Chief Minister Madhu Bangarappa of the JD(S). Another candidate Mahima Patil of the JD(U) and son of late Chief Minister J H Patel is also in the fray. In Mandya the coalition combine has put up JD(S) candidate L Shivarame Gowda facing BJP’s Siddaramaiah.
At Ballari it is a keen contest between Congress Minister DK Shivakumar and BJP strongman J Sriramulu. They are fighting to establish political supremacy in the crucial Hyderabad Karnataka.
In Ballari the Congress has been leaving no stone unturned to clinch the seat from the BJP in a bid to regain its lost glory, which it had enjoyed ever since elections were held in 1952 till 2000. The party is also in buoyant mood after it won six out of nine Assembly seats in the recently concluded elections. Caste plays a major role in Ballari and it’s controlled by STs and other backward communities.
The Congress won six out of the nine assembly seats in May, but the electorate has more often favoured the BJP in national elections. Sriramulu, who had left the BJP before 2013, rejoined the party and had successfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election and 2018 assembly polls. In May, he chose to retain his assembly seat.
Meanwhile in another political development the Karnataka BJP , which was stumped on Thursday by the withdrawal of its candidate in the Ramanagara Assembly bye-poll favouring JD(S) candidate Anita Kumaraswamy just two days ahead of the election, has now sought the polling to be postponed in the seat. They have petitioned the EC.