Bellary: A close associate of the Reddy brothers, BJP Member of Parliament, B. Sreeramulu has a lot at stake in the coming Bellary (ST) bypoll as a win by his personal assistant, Obalesh, could crown him with the image of an ‘unbeatable leader’ in the ore-rich district. Although his first electoral outing ended in defeat in the 1999 assembly poll from Bellary constituency, Mr Sreeramulu has been on a winning streak ever since, winning elections in a row from 2004, when he contested on a BJP ticket.
Following the delimitation of constituencies, he shifted to the Bellary (ST) assembly segment in 2008 and registered another win as a BJP candidate.
But he resigned from the party and contested the 2011 byelection as an independent. This time too he walked away with a huge winning margin of 56,000 votes. In 2013, he won from the constituency as a BSR Congress candidate with a margin of 33,000 votes. And after returning to the BJP, he entered parliament in his maiden Lok Sabha election from Bellary with another huge margin of 84,000 votes this year.
His success in the Lok Sabha election forced the BJP leadership to give him the liberty to choose his own candidate for the bypoll and this makes it all the more important for him to see Mr Obalesh win from the constituency. Should he fail to retain the seat he vacated to go to Parliament, Mr Sreeramulu could not only be proven wrong in his choice of candidate but also be seen as no longer holding sway in Bellary, both of which are clearly not palatable to him.
