E-Paper
State Cong chief faces anger of Jarkiholi supporters in Belagavi
Bengaluru The situation was tense in the border district of Belagavi (Belgaum), about 506 kms from Bengaluru, after supporters of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Ramesh Jarkiholi reportedly pelted stones on the convoy of state Congress president DK Shivakumar
Bengaluru The situation was tense in the border district of Belagavi (Belgaum), about 506 kms from Bengaluru, after supporters of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Ramesh Jarkiholi reportedly pelted stones on the convoy of state Congress president DK Shivakumar.
“The supporters of Ramesh Jarkiholi pelted stones and threw slippers at the convoy,” said one person aware of the developments, requesting not to be named.
Incidentally, Shivakumar is in Belagavi for the nomination process of Satish Jarkiholi, Ramesh’s brother, as the Congress candidate for the April 17 bypolls.
“I condemn the act of stone pelting by followers of Ramesh Jarkiholi on the vehicles of @KPCCPresident @DKShivakumar. This is @BJP4Karnataka sponsored act.
People of Karnataka will not let this go. #BJPGoondagiri,” Siddaramaiah said in a post on Twitter.
Ramesh Jarkiholi has found himself in the thick of a raging sex-for-job scandal that has piled the pressure on the BS Yediyurappa-led government. A complaint by a social activist, Dinesh Kalahalli, on 3 March resulted in Jarkiholi resigning from the cabinet. The complaint has since been withdrawn and the alleged victim’s lawyer has filed a complaint against the minister for allegedly sexually harassing the unnamed woman in the guise of providing her a government job.
Jarkiholi has called the video a fake and part of a sinister political conspiracy to end his political career.
In one of the alleged telephone call recordings between the unnamed woman and her family, there is a mention of Shivakumar, insinuating that the Congress president was somehow involved in the entire episode.
Though Jarkiholi has not mentioned Shivakumar as one of the conspirators, several of his supporters endorse the view that the Congress president had a role to play in the alleged sex-scandal.
However, it remains to be seen how Shivakumar will attempt to mobilise support for one brother while facing the angst of the supporters of the other brother in the border distinct.
Both Satish and Ramesh had opposed the meddling of Shivakumar into the affairs of the district in 2018 that led to the first rise of dissent within the HD Kumaraswamy-led Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S)-Congress coalition government. Ramesh was one of the first to defect to the BJP, that led to the collapse of the coalition government in the state.
