DK Shivakumar vs Jarkiholi brothers: Proxy war defines Ballari contest

BENGALURU: The latent dissidence within the state Congress and the discontent among some leaders over the coalition with JD(S) have led to a proxy war between the party’s principal troubleshooter, DK Shivakumar, and the Jarkiholi brothers in Ballari. It was only four months ago that Shivakumar had helped his party wrest control of this Lok Sabha segment from the BJP.The bad blood began last year when Shivakumar entered Belagavi politics by backing Laxmi Hebbalkar in the Belagavi Rural assembly constituency and her camp in the elections to a local co-operative bank. The Jarkiholi brothers from the Valmiki community — Ramesh, Satish, Balachandra, Lakhan and Bhimshi — have long regarded Belagavi as their exclusive political turf. Even though Ramesh and Satish are Congress members, the clan viewed Hebbalkar’s growing profile as a strategy by Shivakumar to gain a foothold in the region.The coalition politics drama at this stage made matters worse as the Congress refused to offer cabinet berths to Satish and Ramesh, forcing the ouster of the eldest brother, and Shivakumar gained the upper hand in the Belagavi turf war.The fallout is now visible in Ballari where a candidate with family ties to the Jarkiholis, Y Devendrappa, has entered the fray on a BJP ticket, challenging VS Ugrappa who is backed by Shivakumar. Devendrappa’s son is married to Jarkiholis’ sister. The Ballari segment is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Shivakumar had helped the Congress win this segment in the November 2018 bypolls after 14 years, and he is currently the district in-charge minister for Ballari.Shivakumar’s push in Belagavi has strained the Jarkiholi family’s links with the Congress. Ramesh, a sitting Congress MLA, has reportedly moved closer to the BJP, boosting the saffron party’s apparent efforts to topple the Congress-JD(S) government. Balachandra is already a member of the BJP.Before fielding Devendrappa, the BJP leadership faced a dilemma in Ballari as the Reddy brothers and Valmiki strongman B Sreeramulu stepped aside. The party wanted Sreeramulu or his sister, J Shantha, an MP in 2009, to contest here, but they were not enthusiastic about the move after the BJP lost the bypoll to Congress by over 2 lakh votes. Moreover, Sreeramulu shifted his focus to Chitradurga. The Reddy brothers are staying away from the Lok Sabha campaign to sort out their legal troubles arising from allegations of illegal mining.All this gave the Jarkiholi family an opportunity to launch a counterattack, through the BJP, in Shivakumar’s new territory, according to some political observers.Shivakumar denied there was a proxy war and said relations alone cannot work in elections. “In politics, everyone is related to someone. I too have relations cutting across party lines, but that doesn’t guarantee a win. I don’t want to take anyone’s name or consider it a proxy war,” he said.Congress working president and Bidar candidate B Eshwar Khandre hopes Ramesh won’t hurt the party’s chances in Ballari. “I’m still hoping Ramesh Jarkiholi is a Congressman,” he said.