Jolle looks to develop chikkodi, give sugar industry a boost
BELAGAVI: It was a dream debut for MP Annasaheb Jolle from Chikkodi, and a gamble that paid off for the BJP. The saffron party made a bold departure from norm, ignoring strongman Ramesh Katti and picking on the lesser-known Jolle, who delivered a landslide victory against sitting MP and six-time MLA Prakash Hukkeri of the Congress. Having studied up to Class 12, Jolle’s claim to fame is his contribution as the founder of Jolle Udyog Samuha at Examba, and his work with cooperatives in the past decade.
He was able to establish a strong link with the people of Chikkodi, and emerge a popular leader. Jolle, who has many challenges before him, is confident that he will be an effective MP and try to meet the people’s expectations. Known to be a dynamic businessman, Jolle’s Samuha runs many cooperatives and educational institutions, including Shri Beereshwar Cooperative Credit Society, a noted profit- making cooperative society which has given a new dimension to the cooperative movement in the region. It has 153 branches across Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“With an aim to achieve overall development of rural India, I selected the cooperative as the best tool to achieve economic, social, educational and cultural development. I am engaged in the welfare of society through cooperatives for the past 35 years,’’ says Jolle, who has also founded organisations like Jyoti Multipurpose Souhard Sahakari Limited in Chikkodi, which has 15 credit branches and 14 retail supermarkets in rural areas.
Jolle is keen to develop Chikkodi, besides taking measures to bolster the rich sugar industry. He runs several educational institutions in Bengaluru, Examba and Nippani, besides the Oilseeds Growers’ Cooperative Society Limited in Examba. Jolle had contested assembly elections in 2004 and 2018 from Chikkodi, but failed to defeat Prakash Hukkeri and his son, Ganesh Hukkeri.
However, he continued to work relentlessly to build his party in Chikkodi and was confident of a win, sooner or later. His loss by a meagre 10,000 votes in the 2018 assembly elections to Ganesh Hukkeri tempted BJP to field him again in the parliamentary election. Chikkodi, a Congress stronghold from where B Shankaranand won seven times, slipped out of the party’s kitty in 1996, until Prakash Hukkeri won it back in 2014.