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Satish Jarkiholi makes strong gains against BJP’s Mala Suresh Angadi in Belagavi bypolls
Jarkiholi was initially trailing but has secured a lead of over 9,000 votes in recent rounds of counting.
Satish Jarkiholi, Congress candidate for the parliamentary bypolls in Karnataka’s Belagavi district, about 502 kilometres from Bengaluru, has managed to overcome the initial hurdles and is currently leading with 20,3945 votes as against Mala Suresh Angadi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who is trailing with 203074 votes, statistics from state election authorities show.
Jarkiholi was initially trailing but has secured a lead of over 9,000 votes in recent rounds of counting, according to officials, living up to his reputation of being a master strategist. He is one of five powerful “Jarkiholi brothers” who wield significant influence over the border district and its politics.
Belagavi bypoll was necessitated after the death of four-time parliamentarian Suresh Angadi in September last year.
Two of Satish’s brothers, Ramesh and Balachandra, are legislators with the BJP.
If the trends hold, the defeat would deal a big blow to Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa and is likely to open the floodgates of dissent that has been simmering for some time within his government and party.
The Congress, if trends continue, appear to have wrested control of Maski assembly constituency with the imminent defeat of Pratapgouda Patil, one of the 17 legislators who defected to the BJP and helped Yediyurappa to power in 2019. Patil has 24,516 votes as against Basanagouda Turvihal of the Congress who has stormed away with 39,790 votes so far.
“It appears that there is an anti-wave against me. I don’t know why since I had done enough developmental work for this constituency,” Patil told reporters in Raichur.
A defeat for Patil would go against CM Yediyurappa, who benefitted from the former’s defection, as the latter had assured to reward the turncoats for their favour.
Patil had won three times on a Congress ticket before he defected in 2019. However, he had won by just 213 votes in 2018 against Turvihal, who had then contested on a BJP ticket. The candidates switched parties this time around.
The only reason for BJP and Yediyurappa to cheer came from Basavakalyana where its candidate Sharanu Salagar was leading with 15,052 votes against Congress’ Mala B Narayanarao who secured 7,900 votes.
