No spat with Satish, insists Shivakumar on Belagavi visit

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Wednesday sought to underplay the absence of Cabinet colleagues like Satish Jarkiholi at Belagavi’s Sambra airport as the former made an official visit to the district.

The Karnataka Congress chief was in the district to celebrate Dasara at the Hukkeri mutt.

“There are no divisions in the Congress party. All 135 MLAs are our own. The BJP leaders who claim there is a rift among us should listen to JH Patel’s speech,” Shivakumar said.

However, when pressed about why there were no ministers or MLAs to receive him, the Deputy CM clarified that he had decided on the trip only a day prior, adding that his programmes were mostly private affairs.

“I and Satish sat down and spoke to each other only yesterday. I came here for mostly private programmes. Laxmi Hebbalkar is in Bhadravati attending a naming ceremony. (Mahantesh) Koujalgi has taken ill. I suddenly decided to attend this private function yesterday and everyone has their private affairs to attend to,” he added.

When a mediaperson asked him about a reported rift with Satish Jarkiholi, he laughed it off, claiming it was all a “creation of the media and the BJP” since they allegedly wanted a stick to beat the Congress with.

It is to be noted that Minister for Public Works Satish Jarkiholi is in CM Siddaramaiah’s camp while Minister for Women and Child Development Laxmi Hebbalkar is a Shivakumar loyalist.

Both ministers hail from Belagavi district. In the past, Shivakumar has been in the news for antagonizing local leaders from Belagavi district by interfering in their “internal affairs” right to bank polls.

Former Congress MLA and Satish’s brother Ramesh Jarkiholi had gone over to the BJP during the infamous Operation Kamala in July 2019 along with protégé and then Athani MLA Mahesh Kumatahalli due to disagreements with Shivakumar.