Karnataka chief minister Siddharamaiah has unsheathed his “Brahmastra” in the shape of two brothers who have been tasked to take on the BJP’s B Sreeramulu in north and central Karnataka.
The brothers are Ramesh and Satish Jarkiholi who are barely known outside Karnataka because unlike Sreeramulu, who is backed by the Reddy clan and openly acknowledges his indebtedness to the Bellary brothers, the Jarkiholis have kept a low profile, are aware of their political strengths and like to work autonomously.
Like Sreeramulu, Ramesh and Satish are tribals from the Nayaka community whose votes matter in several constituencies across Karnataka. The Jarkiholis are both legislators from the Belgaum region and were ministers by turn in the Siddharamaiah government.
Indeed, the chief minister played one brother against the other because Satish, a four-time MLA, was dropped by Siddharamaiah after which Ramesh was promptly inducted in what was described as a “notable” culmination of a long history of one-upmanship between the Jarkiholis. Satish was so upset that at that time, he told his confidants he might join the Janata Dal (Secular).
The Congress’s central leadership stepped in and appointed him as a national secretary with important organizational responsibilities.
Siddharamaiah roped in Satish, the more political of the brothers, to campaign for him in his second seat, Badami in north Karnataka because of the large number of backward castes and tribals. Satish’s anti-superstition campaigns are well known in north and central Karnataka and on BR Ambedkar’s death anniversary, he organizes events in graveyards and crematoria.
Between them, the brothers have as deep pockets as the Bellary Reddys, own sugar factories and possess helicopters. “But their shirts will be made of cloth that costs Rs 40 per metre and the watch they wear costs not more than Rs 200,” said Srinivasa Nayaka, who heads the Congress’s central Karnataka tribal cell.
But the BJP has already the spread that Satish was hooted out of Badami when he went to solicit support for Siddharamaiah from the Nayakas. Apparently, they reminded him that he had been “humiliated” by Siddharamaiah and asked why he campaigned for him. Sreeramulu, they said, would be become the deputy chief minister if the BJP came to office.