BELAGAVI: He has been a rebel with a cause for 14 months. Since May 17, 2018, in fact. Ever since disqualified Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi saw fellow Congressmen holed up in a Bidadi resort, behaving like “pawns in the hands of Congress leader DK Shivakumar”. It irritated him and another disqualified MLA, R Shankar.
“At that moment, I decided to bring down the coalition government, come what may,’’ recalled Jarkiholi. “When I went to the Bidadi resort with Shankar on May 17 last year, I was irritated by the strange atmosphere there. I was saddened, I felt the MLAs were being used as political pawns by Shivakumar.”
Returning to a hero’s welcome in Gokak on Friday, he revealed that this had led him to take up the role of dissident-in-chief and bring down the Congress-JDS coalition government. He is now confident that he will return as minister in the Yediyurappa government.
Addressing a large gathering of his supporters and BJP workers, he said that what actually caused the coalition government to head to the brink of collapse was the “arrogance’’ and “egotism’’ of CLP leader Siddaramaiah, and his team in the government. “It was not due to the BJP’s hunger for power that the government collapsed, but due to the arrogance of Siddaramaiah and corruption in which Shivakumar was involved,’’ said Jarkiholi.
He said that for 14 months, he did not disclose what took place, despite mediapersons asking him on several occasions to reveal what had led him to rebel. He said he had never had the ambition to become a minister. “Siddaramaiah thought I was not a serious politician, and that I could be easily sacked from the cabinet and the Jarkiholis could be finished politically once and for all. I felt that Siddaramaiah never wanted a leader of the backward classes to grow. But Congress leaders were not aware of my potential. I was made a minister but by then, I had decided to topple the government,’’ he said.
A few days after the Bidadi meeting, he met BJP leader BS Yediyurappa and told him about his plan to bring down the coalition government by getting 17 MLAs out of the ruling factions. “Yediyurappa was surprised, and immediately asked if he can trust Ramesh Jarkiholi, who has been loyal to the Congress for two decades. But he did, and fixed up a meeting with BJP National President Amit Shah and Muralidhar Rao in Hyderabad soon after that,’’ he said.
Jarkiholi said he had clarified to Shah that he would join the BJP with all the rebel MLAs only if Yediyurappa was made chief minister. “I swear on Goddess Laxmi that I said this to Shah and he immediately gave his nod,’’ he recalled. “My efforts to get the rebel MLAs on one platform started, and failed at least seven to eight times. At one point, Yediyurappa and Jagadish Shettar even suggested that I go back to the Congress, but I was confident.”
Fractious family
The two rival Jarkiholi brothers — Satish and Ramesh —hurled abuses at each other when mediapersons grilled them at Belagavi airport soon after they alighted.Calling his younger brother Lakhan a “big cheat”, Ramesh said, “I wanted him to wait for another term to contest but he did not care. I am extremely upset with him. I will not consider Lakhan my brother until December 5. Let him fight the election, I will teach him a lesson.’’