‘Ramesh met Siddaramaiah to blackmail BS Yediyurappa’

Hubballi: Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi claimed here on Monday that his brother and Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi had visited former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in hospital only to blackmail Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa into giving him a plum position  in his government.

Speaking at a Congress convention in Gokak, he alleged that the newly elected legislator from the constituency was eyeing either a Deputy Chief Minister's post or that of water resources minister.

“The Congress  lost the Gokak byelection in Gokak due to Ramesh's money power and intimidation  of  voters,” he charged, adding  that the people had voted not for his brother but the BJP and Mr Yediyurappa.

“Ramesh would have ended in  third place in the byelection if CM Yediyurappa and (his other brother) Balachandra Jarkiholi did not campaign for him. The BJP  distributed lakhs of rupees to the voters two days before the election on realising that Ramesh could be defeated owing to his brother-in-law, Ambirao,” he alleged.

Advising  his younger brother, Lakhan, who was defeated in the bypoll,  to focus on organising the Congress in Gokak, Mr Satish stressed on the need to strengthen the party in the region before the next election.

Mr Lakhan Jarkiholi, who also addressed the convention, too said that he had lost the byelection to Yediyurappa, and not his brother, Ramesh. Reacting to a Facebook post by his nephew, Santosh that all the Jarkiholi brothers were united no matter which party they belonged to,  Mr Lakhan asserted that he would never join hands with his rival brother, but contest against him again in the next election.

“The BJP reduced the Congress votebank by at least 20,000 votes in Gokak by spreading falsehoods like the Jarkiholi brothers are united.. I will continue my fight against corruption and strengthen the Congress before the next election,” he vowed.