BENGALURU: Arabhavi BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi was on Saturday elected chairman of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) unopposed, breaching the JDS fortress. The Gowda family fiefdom has been taken over by another powerful family, the Jarkiholis. Balachandra Jarkiholi, who jumped ship from the JDS to BJP about a decade ago, led the charge as he demolished the JDS challenge and was elected unopposed. Out of 16 members heading various milk federations in the state, 13 voted in favour of Jarkiholi.

JDS leader HD Revanna, who was eyeing the KMF chairman’s post, withdrew his nomination papers on Saturday, leaving Balachandra the unanimous winner. In fact, there was news that he had taken some directors of the KMF to a resort.

The eldest among the Jarkiholi brothers, Ramesh Jarkiholi, disqualified Congress MLA from Gokak constituency, was among the 17 rebel MLAs who resigned from the assembly, bringing down the coalition government. While Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa is under pressure to make Ramesh minister, brother Balachandra missed a ministerial berth as two members of the same family cannot make it to the cabinet. It was then that Yediyurappa had reportedly assured Balachandra that he would get him the KMF chairman’s post.

KMF, which is also known as a “cash cow’’, is the second largest cooperative milk federation in the country after Amul. Before it became the JDS fief, KMF was with the Reddy brothers when the BJP was in power. In 2009, BJP MLA G Somashekhar Reddy, the youngest of the Ballari Reddy brothers, was elected chairman.

It may be recalled that the KMF chairman’s election was to be held on July 29, but the Yediyurappa government postponed it and Revanna even went to HC, questioning this. Later, the government had informed court that the election would be held before August 31.