Jolt for BJP as Sreeramulu wins Bellary bypoll

Ruling BJP today suffered a humiliating defeat in Bellary, the stronghold of Reddy brothers, when their protege and former minister B Sreeramulu won the by-election in the Rural Assembly constituency by a huge margin of 46,000 votes. Sreeramulu, a close associate of jailed mining baron and former ministers G Janardhana Reddy and Karunakara Reddy, secured 74,527 votes and retained the seat which he had vacated protesting the denial of a ministerial berth in the D V Sadananda Gowda Ministry