Three days after Major and Medium Irrigation Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi announced that he could prompt five more Congress MLAs to switch sides to the BJP, he has been made Minister in charge of Belagavi, his home district.
His follower Mahesh Kumathalli, who quit the Congress to join the saffron party with him but was denied a ministerial berth, has been appointed chairman of Karnataka Slum Development Board.
These are seen as measures to “reward” Mr. Jarkiholi and help him manage the party in the district, which is facing a rebellion of sorts from senior leader and ministerial aspirant Umesh Katti and his younger brother and Rajya Sabha aspirant Ramesh Katti.
However, there is another section of leaders in the BJP that sees this as a “balancing act” by the party, which seems to have empowered the Katti faction by reducing the clout of Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi.
They are upset that Mr. Savadi, who was defeated in the Assembly polls, was made Deputy CM and given important portfolios, while eight-times winner Mr. Umesh Katti was left out. The friendship and political goodwill between the Jarkiholi brothers and the Katti clan is well-known and said to date back to their Janata Parivar days.
Five years ago, the Katti and Jarkiholi brothers got together to deny Mr. Savadi chairmanship of the district central cooperative bank by one vote. The Katti brothers are said to have sided with Mr. Jarkiholi when he campaigned for Mr. Kumathalli, who defeated Mr. Savadi in the 2018 Assembly polls.
A BJP leader pointed that one of the Jarkiholi brothers, Balachandra, attended a meeting of Mr. Katti and others. “While a brother attends a pro-Katti meeting, another gets promoted as the district in-charge Minister to exert more control on the administration and the district party unit,” he said.
As if to vindicate such rumours, Congress leader Satish Jarkiholi welcomed the appointment.