BELAGAVI: Strong attempts by Congress leaders Satish Jarkiholi and Lakhan Jarkiholi to defeat their brother Ramesh in the upcoming by-elections suffered a massive setback on Wednesday. Some members of Gokak taluk panchayat from Congress, who belonged to Ramesh’s group, resigned from their posts. What came as another jolt to Satish and Lakhan is that these individuals withdrew their primary memberships from the Congress too.
Even as the ongoing campaign, headed by Satish to ensure Lakhan’s victory in the bypolls, has evoked a tremendous response across the constituency, the abrupt exit of 23 TP members, besides another 15 members who had won seats as independents, has shaken the spirit of all Congress leaders in Gokak. The party is keen to field Lakhan from Gokak, while Ramesh is certain of becoming the BJP candidate, provided he get a clean chit from the Supreme Court in a case relating to his disqualification from the state assembly.
Throughout his six terms as MLA, starting from 1999, Ramesh has been able to establish his stranglehold in most local bodies and cooperative institutions in the taluk, including most GPs, cooperative credit societies and other smaller organisations. While Satish and Lakhan have been able to reach out to a number of voters in their ongoing campaign, their efforts to bring in members of various local bodies, has become a task for them.
Soon after quitting their seats, several Gokak TP members said they would not join any group or form their own faction, as almost all of them are expected to rally behind Ramesh. However, Lakhan is confident that nothing can stop him from defeating Ramesh this time around.
“I am going to be the next MLA of Gokak. I will defeat Ramesh by a big margin. Without our (Satish and my) support, Ramesh could not have won in Gokak,’’ added Lakhan. According to him, the people of Gokak are aware of the way Ramesh who deserted the constituency by indulging in rebel activities for more than a year, and failed to focus on development works.
While Satish is trying to cover more than two to three GPs in his ongoing campaign, the rival camp also has launched its campaign to rebuild Ramesh’s image. Even Amarnath Jarkiholi, Ramesh’s son, was seen addressing several rallies in various parts of Gokak, and has been getting a good response.