“We will concentrate on the BJP campaign in Belagavi Lok Sabha contitutency. We are not planning to go to Chikkodi for campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections,” BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi said in Belagavi on Monday.
His niece and Priyanka Jarkiholi is the Congress candidate in Chikkodi, while the former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar is the BJP nominee from Belagavi.
At an impromptu press conference at the KMF office here, he indicated that there will be no conflict of interest in his campaigns. “No one has called me to campaign for the party in Chikkodi. And, as far as I know, no one has invited Ramesh Jarkiholi to campaign there. We will focus our energies on the Belagavi seat and ensure Mr. Shettar wins,” he said.
“But if we are called, we will go there and campaign for the BJP candidate,’‘ he said.
Both Arabavi, Balachandra Jarkiholi’s Assembly constituency, and Gokak, Ramesh Jarkiholi’s Assembly constituency, are part of the Belagavi parliamentary constituency.
In Chikkodi, Priyanka Jarkiholi, the eldest daughter of Minister Satish Jarkiholi, is pitted against Anna Saheb Jolle of the BJP who is seeking re-election. The MP’s wife, Shashikala Jolle, is the BJP MLA from Nippani and has served as a Minister twice in the past.
“We are concentrating on making Jagadish Shettar the MP from Belagavi and Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for the third time. That is the national trend. Why should it be any different in Belagavi?” he asked.
According to him, pre-poll surveys are signalling at the Congress winning less than 35 Lok Sabha seats in the entire country. Why should the people of Belagavi elect an MP who goes to Delhi to sit in the Opposition? We want our MP to become a Union Minister like the late Suresh Angadi. Mr. Shettar is a senior leader and he is a former Chief Minister. We are confident that he will join the third Modi Cabinet,” he said.
He refused to react to the criticism of Lakshmi Hebbalkar against Mr. Shettar saying the people will give a reply to such statement. However, he said that the charge of being an outsider against Mr. Shettar is pointless as leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have been elected from constituencies other than their home constituencies.
On Ms. Hebbalkar asking Mr. Shettar to produce his Belagavi address, Balachandra Jarkiholi said that Suresh Angadi’s home is the address of Mr. Shettar.
On the charge of Congress leaders trying to contact some of his supporters like Basagouda Naganur, he said that it is natural for all candidates to reach out to people with political clout in the constituency and he sees nothing wrong in it.
Cordial relations
Satish Jarkiholi and Ramesh Jarkiholi are in different parties but they are not estranged. They have very cordial relations. Ramesh Jarkiholi and his elder sister Holevva were born to Lakshmanrao Jarkiholi, a liquour contractor in Gokak and his first wife. Satish Jarkiholi, his three brothers and three sisters were born to Lakshmanrao Jarkiholi and his second wife Bheemavva.
While Satish Jarkiholi is in the Congress, the other brothers, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi are BJP MLAs. Lakhan Jarkiholi is an independent MLC, who is seen more with Ramesh Jarkiholi than with Satish Jarkiholi.
The leaders and their children celebrate family functions together and manage businesses jointly. More than once, Balachandra Jarkiholi has clarified that they remain united as a family, though individual members may have different political interests.
Of the five Jarkiholi brothers, Balachandra Jarkiholi is unmarried and lives alone in Gokak. But he is considered the mentor for the second generation of Jarkiholis, the nine children of the four Jarkiholi brothers. Priyanka Jarkiholi is the only girl in the second generation of the Gokak Sahukars. The children of the Jarkiholi sisters are not active in politics. They handle their own businesses.
The Jarkiholi family entered politics with Satish Jarkiholi going to the Legislative Council as a Janata Dal nominee in 1998. He later joined the Congress. Ramesh Jarkiholi won the 1999 Assembly polls from Gokak as a Congress candidate. He stayed in the party till the fall of the coalition government in 2019. He then said he had orchestrated the resignations and defection of over 20 legislators of different parties to the BJP.
