Amid tension, Jarkiholi brothers look to garner support

The Jarkiholi brothers, who have threatened to raise a banner of revolt, on Wednesday reached out to the disgruntled party legislators in an attempt to muster support to mount pressure on the Congress to fulfill their demands.

It started with Municipalities Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi rushing to Chikkaballapur legislator D Sudhakar’s house late on Tuesday night. They were joined by MTB Nagaraju (Hoskote), B Nagendra (Bellary), Pratapgouda Patil (Maski) and JN Ganesh (Kampli).

On Wednesday, the brothers continued to hold meetings and were believed to be in touch with several other MLAs - Anand Singh (Vijaynagar), B Narayanrao (Basavakalyan), Rahim Khan (Bidar) among others. All these legislators are loyal to Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah, who is away on a Europe trip.

It was speculated that the brothers have planned a 'show of support' to threaten rebellion and that they were even considering whisking some MLAs away. It may be noted that both Sudhakar, Nagaraju and some other MLAs were disgruntled after they were not inducted into Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s Cabinet.

“Who knows what the future has in store? Politics isn’t stagnant water. Anything can happen,” Sudhakar told reporters Wednesday. The meeting, he added, was just a friendly one. “Both Ramesh and Satish (Jarkiholi) are friends. We met to discuss the development of my district and constituency over the past three months. Personally, I’m not happy with the development.”

The Jarkiholi brothers have made demands, which include keeping Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar from interfering with Belagavi affairs, making Satish state party president or deputy CM, rejigging the Belagavi party unit among others.

In a bid to contain the disgruntlement, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao summoned some of these legislators to the party headquarters and held talks. “All we are trying to do is sort out differences, but this is leading to needless speculation,” Rao said.

Ramesh also met senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, marking his entry into this episode. Before this meeting, Ramesh claimed that “everything had been sorted out” and asked mediapersons to “leave me alone.”

Asked about Siddaramaiah, Ramesh said: “Siddaramaiah is as important as Kharge. We have been Ahinda leaders ever since Siddaramaiah came to the Congress from the JD(S).”

Even as he claimed differences were thrashed out, Ramesh went on to contradict himself. “Yes, there are differences and our leaders will sort them out,” he said. He also clarified that he will not quit the party.