LS polls: May field Lingayat, Kuruba in Belagavi dist, says Satish Jarkiholi

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Minister for Public Works Satish Jarkiholi threw a curve ball claiming that Congress was considering fielding a Lingayat and a Kuruba for the two Lok Sabha constituencies in the district.

The Lok Sabha seats in Belagavi district are Belagavi and Chikkodi. The minister made the comments at the party office in Belagavi on Monday.

“We are thinking of fielding a Lingayat and a Kuruba. Both are populous communities (in the district),” Satish told mediapersons.

He added that the candidates would have to meet several criteria, namely popularity in their respective communities, proximity to the party, active ground work and approval of the high command.

The statement comes as a surprise because there had been friction between Satish, a loyalist of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar, who is in the Deputy CM DK Shivakumar’s camp, because Jarkiholi wanted his daughter to get a ticket from the party for the Belagavi Lok Sabha seat while Laxmi wants the same for her son.

Interestingly, Hebbalkar is a Panchamasali Lingayat and Satish comes from the Nayaka community, a Scheduled Tribe (ST). Jarkiholi, however, rubbished rumours that he was trying to poach Belagavi Municipal Corporation (BMC) councilors.

He insisted that it was the BJP-aligned corporators who had approached Congress because they were not allowed to function properly by saffron party MLA from Belagavi South Abhay Patil. BJP has a majority in the Belagavi city civic body as it stands.