<p class="title">Senior Congress leader V S Ugrappa, was given the party ticket to contest the Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll on November 3. His name was cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday afternoon.</p>.<p class="bodytext">With this, the Congress high command has drawn the curtain on the confusion that prevailed in selecting a candidate to contest the bypoll to the ST-reserved Ballari seat. The BJP has fielded its warhorse B Sreeramulu’s sister J Shantha there.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Ugrappa, an incumbent MLC, will contest the bypoll with the tag of being an 'outsider'. He is a native of Pavagada in Tumakuru district. Ugrappa is an advocate by profession.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At least a dozen aspirants were in the fray to get the party ticket for the Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll; including Ballari legislator B Nagendra’s brother Venkatesh Prasad.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Ugrappa was at the forefront of the Congress’ campaign against illegal mining in Ballari during the BJP regime in 2008 and 2013.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It was this campaign that provided a plank with which the Congress rode to power in the 2013 Assembly polls. Then, Ugrappa headed a Congress fact-finding committee on illegal mining.</p>
<p class="title">Senior Congress leader V S Ugrappa, was given the party ticket to contest the Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll on November 3. His name was cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday afternoon.</p>.<p class="bodytext">With this, the Congress high command has drawn the curtain on the confusion that prevailed in selecting a candidate to contest the bypoll to the ST-reserved Ballari seat. The BJP has fielded its warhorse B Sreeramulu’s sister J Shantha there.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Ugrappa, an incumbent MLC, will contest the bypoll with the tag of being an 'outsider'. He is a native of Pavagada in Tumakuru district. Ugrappa is an advocate by profession.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At least a dozen aspirants were in the fray to get the party ticket for the Ballari Lok Sabha bypoll; including Ballari legislator B Nagendra’s brother Venkatesh Prasad.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Ugrappa was at the forefront of the Congress’ campaign against illegal mining in Ballari during the BJP regime in 2008 and 2013.</p>.<p class="bodytext">It was this campaign that provided a plank with which the Congress rode to power in the 2013 Assembly polls. Then, Ugrappa headed a Congress fact-finding committee on illegal mining.</p>
