Belagavi: Congress leaders to switch to JD(S)

The Congress is grappling with internal rivalry in Belagavi region where some of its top leaders are expected to switch to JD(S) or BJP in the next few months. Already, Shashikant Sidnal, son of four-time MP S.B. Sidnal has joined BJP in Belagavi on Tuesday.   To revive JD(S) from the grassroots, JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy is dependent on former minister Satish Jarkiholi, who is likely to join JD(S) sometime in 2017. According to his associates, he has decided to switch parties after he was sacked from the state cabinet a few months ago. However, the leader has not come out openly on whether he would quit the Congress so far.

"He would have joined JD(S) by now but it was delayed only because the party replaced him with his brother Ramesh Jarkiholi in the cabinet. Any hasty decision would also send a wrong signal to voters,'' a friend of Jarkiholi said.  The JD(S) is trying to rope in Jarkiholi and BJP's Umesh Katti, powerful regional leaders.