BJP suffers jolt as Sreeramulu wins Bellary bypoll

BELLARY: Giving a jolt to ruling BJP in Karnataka, former Minister B Sreeramulu today won the Bellary (Rural) Assembly constituency byelection, which he contested as an independent after quitting the party, by a huge margin of over 46,000 votes.

Sreeramulu, a close associate of jailed mining baron and former minister G Janardhana Reddy, secured 74,527 votes and retained the seat which he had vacated protesting denial of a ministerial berth in the D V Sadananda Gowda Ministry.

BJP finished a poor third with its candidate P Gadilingappa losing the deposit managing only 17,366 votes behind Congress' B Ramprasad who garnered 27,737 votes in the triangular fight, seen as litmus test for the Reddy brothers, facing the CBI heat in illegal mining cases.

40-year-old Sreeramulu had resigned his Assembly seat in August in the wake of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining that indicting him, saying his pride has been hurt. He quit the BJP days before the November 30 byelection, result of which was announced today.

Sreeramulu was also angry the BJP has not sought clarifications from him the mining report. In later days, he bitterly criticised the BJP, vowing to decimate it in Bellary district.