Ballari: Voters in the Ballari Lok Sabha constituency have always risen above caste and community considerations and even the 'outsider' factor was not a serious poll issue if election statistics are any indication.
For more than half a century, the seat remained a strong citadel of the Congress party in the South and had hit the headlines in the 1999 Lok Sabha general elections which witnessed a fierce battle between former AICC President Mrs Sonia Gandhi and BJP senior leader Ms Sushma Swaraj.
In the current bypoll, necessitated after BJP MP Mr B. Sriramulu's resignation, BJP leaders are questioning the credentials of 'outsider' Congress candidate and MLC Mr V.S. Ugrappa to contest the election.
Indeed, voters here have in the past elected Parliament candidates who were not local leaders. Mr VKRV Rao, Ms. Basavarajeshwari (who migrated from the neighbouring Raichur district), R.Y. Ghorpade, , and former AICC President Mrs Sonia Gandhi, were all 'outsiders' and Congress candidates who won from Ballari.
In the past two general elections held after delimitation of constituencies in 2008, the Ballari Lok Sabha seat was reserved for Scheduled Tribes and again, the Congress had given the ticket to 'outsider,' Justice N.Y. Hanumanthappa who hails from neighbouring Chitradurga constituency. However, he failed to win both the elections.
From 1952 to 2004, prior to delimitation of constituencies in 2008, elections were not fought on caste lines but on party lines, with voters divided between the Congress and the Janata Party/Janata Dal (Secular) till 1999 and between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the subsequent elections.
Voters here have returned Congress candidates, irrespective of their caste and creed, to Parliament in 14 of the 17 elections held so far. BJP candidates G. Karunakar Reddy, representing Other Backward Classes (OBC), and J. Shantha and her brother Mr B Sriramulu (representing Scheduled Tribes) won in 2004, 2009 and 2014 respectively.
