BELLARY: Former minister and disgruntled leader B Sriramulu, who had vowed to decimate BJP from the district, has managed to win the byelection for Bellary Rural Constituency (ST) on Sunday, with a huge margin of over 46,790 votes.Sriramulu, a close associate of jailed mining baron and former minister Janardhana Reddy, gave a jolt to the ruling BJP by securing 74,527 votes and retained the seat that he had vacated, protesting denial of a ministerial berth in the D V Sadananda Gowda government.While Congress candidate B Ramprasad, who had lost to Sriramulu in the 2008 Assembly election, garnered 27,737 votes, P Gadlingappa of BJP, who was contesting for the first time, was relegated to the third position and even lost his deposit with only 17,366 votes in the triangular fight, which had attracted nationwide attention. Sriramulu, who maintained the lead from the first round of counting, recorded a hatrick by winning for third time from the constituency.The byelection, which was seen as a litmus test for the Reddy clan, has strengthened them a bit, after they had lost all hope with the arrest of Janardhana Reddy in an illegal mining case.Sriramulu had resigned his Assembly seat in August after having been indicted in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining. He had even quit the BJP days before the November 30 byelection.The closely-guarded counting process was held at the Government Polytechnic College under heavy security cover, and was supervised by DC A A Biswas and SP Dr Chandragupta, among other officials. This was the first bypoll the BJP faced after Gowda took over as CM.
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