Sriramulu’s sister, J Shantha, the BJP candidate in Bellary, had scraped through to victory in the Lok Sabha polls by margin of only 2,243 votes.
Tourism Minister and mining baron Janardhan Reddy was in-charge of Bellary wherein BJP had sweeped the assembly elections held just a year back. The controversy over the Bellary airport project had taken a political turn and war of words had broken out between former prime minister and JD(S) president H D Deve Gowda and key BJP leaders.
He told reporters on the sidelines of a function that the recession in the mining sector, especially in the Sandur and VIjayanagar segments, had resulted in unemployment which impact on the poll result.