It seems that the political rift between senior Congress leaders D.K. Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president, and Satish Jarkiholi, Public Works Minister and KPCC working president, refuses to go away despite denials issued by the two leaders.
Party sources said the source of it is some disgruntled MLAs and not Mr. Jarkiholi directly.
“Some MLAs have been complaining to him and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that Mr. Shivakumar, who is also Irrigation Minister, was not heeding their requests. They wanted to put up a joint face in front of the Chief Minister who would be spending the week in Mysuru during the Dasara festivities. Mr. Jarkiholi, who also feels that Mr. Shivakumar and Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar are interfering in administrative matters of Belagavi district, decided to lead the delegation,” a Congress leader said.
As of now, the tour plan has been postponed, following instructions from AICC leaders.
AICC president M. Mallikarjun Kharge and Mr. Siddaramaiah have also spoken to Mr. Jarkiholi.
Mr. Shivakumar, who spent Thursday morning in the government guesthouse meeting party workers and Irrigation Department engineers, maintained that there were no differences between him and Mr. Jarkiholi.
Meanwhile, Ms. Hebbalkar said there was no enmity or rift between her and Mr. Jarkiholi. “I have repeatedly said that there are no problems between us. Also, I do not understand why Mr. Shivakumar is dragged into each such controversy,” she said in Bengaluru.
She said that she had neither interfered with the district administration in Belagavi, where Mr. Jarkiholi is in charge, nor had she tried to stall or change the appointment or posting of any officer to any place that had been done by him. “Similarly, he has agreed to all the postings that I have requested,” she said.
However, Mr. Jarkiholi said there were some differences between him and some other leaders, but he was going ahead by adopting “the principle of compromise”.
“You need to compromise on a lot of things in politics. However, they are not very serious issues,” he said.
He said there were some differences with Ms. Hebbalkar over the posting of officers and appointments. “But they have been resolved now,” he said.
