Belagavi: Even before state Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Kumaraswamy could take over as Chief Minister, a tug-of-war has begun among Congress legislators here for Cabinet berths. With Mumbai-Karnataka throwing up only three JD(S) legislators, Mr Kumaraswamy may have no choice but to give most of the Ministerial posts from the region to the Congress MLAs.
Blaming the miserable performance of the Congress in all 18 assembly segments of Belagavi on the Jarkiholis some Congress party leaders headed by former Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee member, Shankar Munavalli have threatened to launch an agitation if the brothers are included in the state cabinet.
Says Mr Munavalli, “All eight Congress MLAs won their seats in Belagavi on their own strength, and the five-time legislators, Satish and Ramesh Jarkiholi , who claimed they would ensure the victory of 12 party candidates, failed to do so. And they themselves struggled to win their own seats in Gokak and Yamakanmardi.”
In fact, Mr Munavalli claims the brothers also worked against the victory of eight Congress legislators.
In his view, Belagavi Rural MLA, Laxmi Hebbalkar , who won by a huge margin of over 50,000 votes, should be rewarded by being appointed district in-charge Minister. “Instead of the Jarkiholi brothers, Hebbalkar, Khanapur MLA, Anjali Nimbalkar and Chikkodi MLA, Ganesh Hukkeri should find a place in the cabinet,” he added.
