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Sriramulu's pal ditches Congress, joins BJP
Sriramulu’s pal ditches Congress, joins BJP
Ever since the Karnataka Minister of Transport, B Sriramulu announced that he might contest from Ballari, he appears to be on a mission to help BJP secure Chitradurga.
Chitradurga: Ever since the Karnataka Minister of Transport, B Sriramulu announced that he might contest from Ballari, he appears to be on a mission to help BJP secure Chitradurga. His motive came to the fore when his close friend who was in the Congress, ditched the party to join BJP.
S Thippeswamy, a close pal of Sriramulu when they were working together in BSR Congress, has now quit Congress party and joined hands with the BJP. The constituency of interest in this case is the Molakalmuru assembly constituency in Chitradurga district.
Sriramulu is the sitting MLA of Molakalmuru constituency. During the visit of Union Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah to Sandur in Ballari, Sriramulu claimed that he would be contesting from one of the Ballari constituencies.
The 'Vijaya Sankalpa Samavesha' conducted on February 23 in Sandur witnessed the visit of Amit Shah. Taking a hint from Sriramulu's recent visits to the Sandur assembly constituency in Ballari district, he could contest from Sandur as he had mentioned he would contest from one of Ballari's constituencies.
It is to be noted that S Thippeswamy was the MLA who won Molakalmuru seat back in 2013 from Sriramulu's own BSR Congress party. Both of them left the BJP in 2011 and formed the Badavara Shramikara Raithara (BSR) Congress. However, Sriramulu rejoined BJP in 2014 and Thippeswamy followed suit in 2015.
In April of 2018, the BJP's first list of candidates for the elections came out and Sriramulu was asked to contest from Molakalmuru. This didn't sit well with Thippeswamy as Molakalmuru was his stronghold. The two of them then even contested against each other in the same constituency back in 2018 with Sriramulu in BJP and Thippeswamy as an independent candidate.
Thippeswamy is a Molakalmuru strongman and now that he has joined BJP, Sriramulu is free to contest from Sandur as the Molakalmuru stronghold is expected to be sealed with Thippeswamy's presence. On 26 February, Sriramulu shared a post on Twitter with pictures stating, "My friend S. Thippeswamy has worked for the people and gained their support. He is very dear to me personally. Our friendship goes way back and there's nothing new to be said about it. Today he has returned to BJP party from the Congress. He has the support of his friends, relatives and supporters."
In the meanwhile, Sriramulu had also taken to Twitter just a day after Amit Shah's visit to Sandur. In a Tweet on February 24, Sriramulu welcomed Congress leader Sharief and his supporters from the 28th and 29th wards of Cowl Bazaar in Ballari to BJP. It is now evident that since Thippeswamy has taken the BJP bastion in Chitradurga's Molakalmuru, Sriramulu is strengthening base in Ballari for the upcoming assembly elections.
