Karnataka - Bellary   

BJP aiming high in Bellary

BELLARY: Will the Bharatiya Janata Party continue its winning streak in Bellary district?

This question is uppermost in people’s minds here. For, in less than 10 years of entering politics, under the leadership of G. Karunakar Reddy, G. Somashekar Reddy and G. Janardhan Reddy, along with former Minister B. Sriramulu, have made BJP a force to reckon with.

The sustained efforts of the party to strengthen itself on the one hand and the differences among Congress leaders on the other have helped the BJP. The regular visits of party leader Sushma Swaraj to Bellary in connection with the Sri Varamahalakshmi puja, as well as to participate in various mass marriage functions sponsored by the party, have greatly helped it.

From a mere 89,593 votes garnered in the district in 1999, the BJP has widened its base polling 2.47 lakh votes in the 2004 elections. In 1994, it had won a lone seat (Hospet). In the 2004 elections, it won three seats, besides wresting the Bellary Lok Sabha seat from the Congress since 1952. The BJP also gained control over the zilla panchayat, two taluk panchayats as well as urban civic bodies in the district.

The party leaders have been making efforts to win all nine Assembly seats in the district. With the reservation of five seats for Scheduled Tribes, party leaders are hoping to ride on the popularity of Mr. Sriramulu, who belongs to the Valmiki community.

Added to that, several prominent leaders of the Congress, including Kolur Basavanagowda, former MP; Siraj Sheikh and Nandihalli Halappa, both former MLAs, and former Chairman of Karnataka Land Army Bhavi Bettappa

have joined the party.

The BJP has fielded its candidates in all nine Assembly constituencies including B. Sriramulu (Bellary), G. Somashekar Reddy, (Bellary city), Suresh Babu, (Kampli) and B.S. Anand Singh (Vijayanagar).

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BJP aiming high in Bellary

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