BELAGAVI: In what is dubbed as a high-profile contest to establish a hold on Belagavi district politics, some top BJP leaders will cross swords in the upcoming elections to Belagavi DCC Bank on November 5. The saffron party leaders are said to be split into two groups in an attempt to win the elections.
Belagavi District Credit Cooperative (DCC) Bank, one of the biggest cooperative banks in the country which remained a non-political entity for many decades, has emerged as a strong institution with 842 credit cooperative organisations working under it in Belagavi region. Of late, the drastic growth of the bank has attracted top politicians to its affairs.
The election for the 16 posts of directors has become a matter of prestige for legislators and ministers.According to the sources, one group includes Laxman Savadi, Kittur MLA Mahantesh Doddagoudar, Chikkodi MP Annasaheb Jolle among others while the other has Ramesh Jarkiholi, Balachandra Jarkiholi, Umesh Katti and Ramesh Katti.
During the last DCC polls, the group headed by Jarkiholis won narrowly by a single vote against Savadi’s group to secure power and Ramesh Katti was elected Chairman. To retain power, the Jarkiholi group is said to be making all-out efforts to gather support from all cooperative organisations.DCC Bank Chairman Ramesh Katti said, his group is confident of winning 12 of the 16 posts this time to retain power. He said all the preparations for the elections were going on and that most of the voters were supporting him.
Despite the fact that the DCC Bank is the centre of politics in Belagavi, top cooperative leaders in the region say that most developments in the cooperative sector take place on mutual understanding and not through any panel or group.