BELAGAVI: A two-day Belagavi tour of former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa and party state in-charge Arun Singh on Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to throw light on several important issues, including factionalism in the Belagavi BJP and setting the house in order ahead of the next year’s assembly election.
The party leaders in Belagavi expect the two top leaders to chalk out measures to keep the flock together in Belagavi to face the upcoming elections effectively. A cold war between the politically influential Jarkiholi and Katti groups could seriously hamper the prospects of BJP if the party ignored them, say several BJP leaders, who are waiting for Yediyurappa to intervene and talk to both the sides.
A few BJP leaders in the state are against having Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi reinducted into the Cabinet. As to how Yediyurappa and Arun Singh would provide a smooth passage for Jarkiholi into the Cabinet amid the rising opposition for it remains to be seen.
Sources said that the BJP leadership is keen to set the house in order in Belagavi with the help of Yediyurappa and Arun Singh in their meetings in Belagavi’s Sankam Hotel for the next two days.
The BJP leadership is concerned about the way many top leaders of Belagavi BJP like MLA Umesh Katti, former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, MLA Shashikala Jolle, and MLC Mahantesh Kavatagimath kept MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi out of a meeting which they held recently in Belagavi.
Sources in BJP said efforts were being made by leaders in Belagavi to prevent the entry of Jarkiholis in the Cabinet. In the backdrop of a serious groupism in Belagavi, the party leadership is believed to have rushed its Yediyurappa to trouble-shoot the problem before it worsens, sources said. For the BJP to bolster its position to retain power in the state, the state leadership feels it is important for the party to perform well in the zilla panchayat, taluk panchayat and Assembly elections in Belagavi, which has 18 Assembly segments and two Lok Sabha seats.