BENGALURU: Batting for personal scores and not bothered about the fate of the party or the team, the Jarkiholis of Belagavi are likely to have their way this time too.
Even as speculations are rife about Municipal Administration minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and his brother MLA Satish Jarkiholi threatening to quit the party with a flock of disgruntled Congress MLAs, the developments are seen just as one more pressure tactic to assert their feudal style control over their political turf of Belagavi.
The setback the brothers suffered in the PLD bank election with their party MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar having the last laugh, has blown into a crisis that threatens to rock the coalition government. The Jarkiholis are now desperate for retribution. They are now targeting Congress strongman and Water Resources
Minister D K Shivakumar, who stood behind Lakshmi in her fight.
Jarkiholis have presented a charger of demands to assert their control over Belagavi politics and keeping Shivakumar away from Belagavi affairs tops it. The brothers have given a community colour to the issue which is purely confined to retaining the family hold over Belagavi.
Faced with compulsions of scripting a success story out of the coalition government, the Congress high command is set to bow to the Jarkiholis by asking Shivakumar to keep off from Belagavi affairs, give free hand to Ramesh Jarkiholi in posting and transfer of officials in Belagavi, consider his request on induction of new ministers from the region and field Satish Jarkiholi from Belagavi for the Lok Sabha election.