BENGALURU/ BELAGAVI: Over 48 hours after voting for the Lok Sabha polls ended, the coalition government continues to be on the edge, thanks to Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi’s “I will resign” statement.
In a fresh development, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar rushed to meet Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy at his residence in J P Nagar. Senior Congress leaders held a meeting at the state Congress headquarters to discuss the ‘Jarkiholi crisis’.
After the meeting, state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “Ramesh Jarkiholi has Congress DNA and blood. Congress has done him no injustice. He is unhappy about bere novu (some other pain).” However, he did not specify what this other pain was.
Ramesh’s estranged brother and cabinet minister Satish Jarkiholi added that the reason behind Ramesh’s anger is because “he has lost something”. When asked what this meant, Dinesh Gundu Rao hastily said, “Ask something else.”
Ramesh had maintained that he wants to resign with a handful of other MLAs, one of them being Athani MLA Mahesh Kumatalli. However, when contacted, Kumatalli said, “I will be with the Congress. I worked hard for Congress during the LS elections. It is the media that is responsible for these slanderous statements.’’ This has come as a shock to Ramesh.
According to sources, Ramesh’s other close associates such as MLAs Shrimant Patil, Bheema Nayak and Nagendra also backtracked from leaving the Congress.However, sources said that most of the disgruntled MLAs have appealed to Ramesh to put the rebellion on pause until the results are out and Ramesh is likely to oblige. A section of BJP leadership is also said to have asked Jarkiholi to exercise restraint to avoid causing any trouble for the saffron party.
The coalition leadership, including H D Kumaraswamy, D K Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, are also in touch with all the MLAs who were keen to join Ramesh in an attempt to thwart the anti-party exercise.
Dismissing Ramesh’s threats, Cabinet Minister Priyank Kharge said, “Ramesh has given many deadlines till now.”
When BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa was asked about Ramesh Jarkiholi, he only replied with an “I
don’t know”.