A controversy over the transfer of personnel has led to discord between ministers Satish Jarkiholi and Lakshmi Hebbalkar, both representing Belagavi district, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. This growing division could potentially harm the prospects of the Congress party in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, where the party is expected to secure at least 6 to 8 seats in North Karnataka.
The rift was triggered after the Urban Development Department didn’t accept the recommendations by Public Works Department (PWD) minister Jarkiholi for an appointment to the Belagavi City Corporation. Instead, a candidate suggested by the minister for Women and Child Welfare Hebbalkar was considered.
Jarkiholi faced another setback as his recommendations for the presidential posts of the Belagavi Urban Development Authority (BUDA) and the Catchment Area Development Authority (CADA) for the Malaprabha and Ghataprabha river projects, which included two of his party supporters from the district Congress, were temporarily halted.
“We, the supporters of Jarkiholi, feel it’s an insult to our leader, who has the capacity to get 30 to 40 legislators elected from North Karnataka. He remained silent over the suggestion of chief minister Siddaramaiah,” said Manjunath Patil, Congress leader and supporter of from Gokak town.
Leaders close to Jarkiholi disclosed to HT that even chief minister Siddaramaiah had initially given his consent to Jarkiholi’s preferred candidate for the position. A group of Jarkiholi’s supporters, led by Manjunath Patil, expressed disappointment that Jarkiholi didn’t speak out against chief minister Siddaramaiah’s apparent change of stance.
{{/usCountry}}Leaders close to Jarkiholi disclosed to HT that even chief minister Siddaramaiah had initially given his consent to Jarkiholi’s preferred candidate for the position. A group of Jarkiholi’s supporters, led by Manjunath Patil, expressed disappointment that Jarkiholi didn’t speak out against chief minister Siddaramaiah’s apparent change of stance.
{{/usCountry}}Moreover, in response to the alleged involvement of Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar in the transfers, nine out of the 11 MLAs didn’t go to welcome Shivakumar at the Belagavi airport on Wednesday as he arrived in the district for a tour. Only Lakshmi Hebbalkar and Bailhongal MLA Mahantesh Koujalagi welcomed the deputy chief minister at the airport.
A Congress legislator familiar to the matter asserted that the collective absence of legislators during Shivakumar’s tour was an indirect protest against his interference in district politics. However, reacting to the matter, Shivakumar said that most of the legislators had informed him about their non-availability on Wednesday much before his tour programme was scheduled. “No political issues behind the matter. All the 136 legislators are together. Nothing other should be inferred from it,” Shivakumar said.
Earlier, Satish Jarkiholi had organised a Mysuru tour program to celebrate the Dasara festival. Twenty Congress legislators from the northern regions of Kattur and Kalyan Karnataka had confirmed their participation in this tour. However, suspicions of the visit by being a political show of strength led Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who had previously considered Jarkiholi’s supporters, to engage with him and subsequently cancel the tour, said leaders in the know of the development.
Describing the cancelled Mysuru Dasara tour as non-political and not a display of his power, Jarkiholi said, “Despite my candidate not being considered for a position in the city corporation, as the state working president of the party, it is my duty to address such minor issues to prevent harm to the party.”
Meanwhile, Hebbalkar clarified that she recommended a candidate only after obtaining the consent of Jarkiholi. She appealed to the people, particularly her party workers, not to take the matter seriously. “Jarkiholi is my political guru. I never go against him. The party is like a family, and we never allow issues to escalate into public debates,” she stated.
The ongoing power struggle between the Jarkiholi family, based in Gokak, and the then first-time legislator Hebbalkar, regarding control over district politics, played a pivotal role in the fall of the previous Janata Dal(Secular) and Congress coalition government led by Kumaraswamy in 2019.
The Jarkiholi family, comprising three MLAs and an MLC, wields substantial political influence. Their rivalry became apparent when their candidates contested for the presidential posts of the Belagavi Taluk Cooperative Credit Bank against Lakshmi’s candidates in 2019.
Ramesh Jarkiholi, representing the assembly for the seventh term, suspected DK Shivakumar’s support behind Lakshmi’s candidates in the bank’s matter in 2019 and later joined the BJP, paving the way for the collapse of the alliance.
On Wednesday Ramesh Jarkiholi emphasised that despite political differences within the Jarkiholi family, they always unite to preserve their family’s political reputation. He asserted that despite his statements, Shivakumar continues to interfere in the political affairs of Belagavi district. “I removed the Kumaraswamy government due to the influence of a woman supported by Shivakumar,” he said.