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.

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.

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.

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.

Ugrappa was at the forefront of the Congress’ campaign against illegal mining in Ballari during the BJP regime in 2008 and 2013.

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.