Elections to the Belagavi Taluk Primary, Cooperative, Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (earlier known as Primary Land Development Bank) that had gained Statewide attention owing to the tussle between Congress leaders Laxmi Hebbalkar and the Jarkiholi brothers ended on a conciliatory note on Friday, with the party central leadership brokering a compromise.
The weeklong drama of the two groups, accusing each other of high-handedness and monopolistic politics, ended with the election of candidates who belonged to the Hebbalkar camp, after consultation with Satish Jarkiholi.
Mahadev Patil, a Maratha leader from Uchagaon in Belagavi Rural Assembly constituency, was elected president and Bapu Saheb Mohammad Ali Jamadar vice-president, both unopposed. However, Ms. Hebbalkar’s favoured candidate Bapu Gowda Patil was dropped from the race as part of the compromise.
Though the two groups have been maintaining that they have not suffered any setback in the issue, it is widely being seen as an embarrassment to the Jarkiholi brothers who had near total control over the party affairs in the district for three decades now, said a district Congress committee leader.
‘No winner, no loser’
Ms. Hebbalkar, earlier in the day, said, “Senior leaders have come to Belagavi and resolved the issue. No one will win today and no one will lose today.”
Supporters of Mr. Satish Jarkiholi did not file nominations as per the compromise formula. It was all over in half an hour. Since only one nomination each was received for the post of the president and the vice-president, the election was a mere formality.
The compromise was brokered by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Eshwar Khandre who flew in from Bengaluru in the morning. He is said to have told the two leaders to “take two steps backwards and move forward in working for the party”.
Mr. Khandre told The Hindu that the compromise was without any conditions from either side. He clarified that he had not carried any messages from the party leadership about making any one of the leaders a Minister or offering them any other position in the party or the government.
Ms. Hebbalkar had been at war with the Gokak strongmen Mr. Satish Jarkiholi and Ramesh Jarkiholi over the elections to the local cooperative. Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi had threatened of a “radical shift” in the district politics if the Congress leadership did not rein her in.
Some supporters unhappy
The compromise formula by the party senior leadership triggered angry reactions from some Jarkiholi supporters. Leaders such as Parashuram Patil and Ayesha Sanadi said the Jarkiholi group had suffered a “setback” in the elections as both the president and the vice-president of the bank belonged to the Laxmi Hebbalkar group.
“In a few days, our leaders will show who they are and what they are capable of. They will throw a bomb in a few days. You wait and see,” Mr. Patil told reporters.