Bengaluru: Satish Laxmanrao Jarakiholi, senior Congress leader on Tuesday said that he has resigned from his post as secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Jarakiholi, a sugar baron and prominent leader from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, was one of the many senior leaders of the state who were left out of last Wednesday’s cabinet expansion.
Jarakiholi’s resignation comes at a time when the Congress in Karnataka has seen many of its partymen, who were not included in the ministry, rebel against their exclusion from the list. Other senior leaders like M.B. Patil, H.K. Patil, Ramalinga Reddy, Shamnur Shivashankarappa and M. Krishnappa among others have made their displeasure public after not getting cabinet berths posing one of the biggest threats to the fragile coalition government which has not even completed a month.
Jarakiholi had also served as a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government. He was also the catalyst behind Siddaramaiah’s victory in Badami. Siddaramaiah had contested from two seats but was routed by JD(S) strongman G.T. Deve Gowda in Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru district.
However, Satish’s brother, Ramesh Jarakiholi was inducted in the state cabinet.
The exclusion of a large number of former ministers led to discord within the ranks.
The Congress party got 22 of the 34 total ministries in its kitty after it made a post-poll pact with the former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular).
The alliance necessitated due to the fractured verdict in the recently concluded state assembly elections. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats while the Congress bagged 78 and JD(S)-Bahujan Samaj Party combine got 38 seats.
Desperate not to lose another state still under its control to the BJP, the Congress extended support to the JD(S) including handing over the chief minister’s portfolio to its smaller ally.
After the coalition proved its majority on the floor of the house, the two parties came to an agreement where the Congress would get 22 portfolios and the JD(S) gets 12.