Karnataka Elections: For the turbulent Jarkiholi family at the centre of Belagavi’s politics, there are grudges to settle this time

The Jarkiholis are five brothers, and four of them are members of the Karnataka legislature from different political parties.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” Who better to vouch for this than Ramesh Jarkiholi, once a powerful minister and uncrowned king of  Karnataka’s Belagavi district, who was brought to his knees by not one, but two angry women. One was a first-time MLA. The identity of the other woman remains unknown and she came to be known as “CD Lady”.

Let us leave that aside for a moment, while we try to understand the Jarkiholi family better. The Jarkiholis are five brothers whose father Laxmanrao Jarkhiholi was a prominent sugarcane grower and businessman of Belagavi (earlier, Belgaum). Four of the brothers are members of the Karnataka legislature from different political parties.

Ramesh And Satish

While Ramesh and Bhalachandra represent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the assembly, Satish is a Congress MLA. Lakhan was elected to the legislative council as an independent recently. In 2013, one more brother, Bhimshi, had contested from BJP against Ramesh who was then in Congress and lost. The brothers are known to change parties according to their convenience.

Read more on our coverage of the Karnataka Elections here. 

Though Belagavi politics was earlier controlled by various families like Koujalagis, Kattis and Jolles, the Jarkiholis have over the years emerged as the most prominent among them. The family, which owns five sugar factories, belongs to the Valmiki Nayaka community, a group under the ST category.

Ramesh, a six-time MLA made his foray into electoral politics in 1999 when he won from Gokak as a Congress candidate. When Siddaramaiah became the Chief Minister in 2013, Ramesh had “sacrificed” the minister’s post in favour of his younger brother Satish. Sibling rivalry would soon come to the fore and Siddaramaiah would drop Satish and induct Ramesh.

Enter DK Shivakumar

When the Janata Dal(S)-Congress government led by HD Kumaraswamy came to power after the 2018 assembly elections, both the brothers were made ministers. That is when Laxmi Hebbalkar, Congress MLA from Belgaum (Rural) decided to strike. Once a close confidant of Ramesh, Laxmi fell out with him and soon shifted loyalties to DK Shivakumar, now the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president.

With the help of Shivakumar, Laxmi succeeded in getting her candidates elected as directors of Primary Land Development (PLD) Bank, Belagavi, replacing the loyalists of the Jarkiholi family. The defeat in their own backyard, would not only cause acute embarrassment to the Jarkiholis who until then believed in their invincibility, but would also be a flashpoint in Karnataka politics, leading to the fall of the Kumaraswamy government.

As top Congress leaders stood by Laxmi who grew from strength to strength, Ramesh would   plot his revenge and play a key role in the defection of about 14 Congress and JD (S) MLAs including himself to BJP. In return, the new Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, made him Minister for Medium and Major Irrigation, a plum portfolio, in 2019. Satish remained in Congress and threw his weight behind Laxmi.

Ramesh’s Fall 

But Ramesh’s joy at becoming a minister was short-lived, as the second lady would now make her entry. In March 2021, a sleazy video purportedly of the minister in a compromising position with a young woman would go viral. The woman who accused Ramesh of allegedly exploiting her with the promise of a government job,  then went on to record her statement before the magistrate and even approached the High Court to block any move by the BJP government to give him a clean chit.

Ramesh blamed it on a conspiracy  by Shivakumar to finish him off politically. After initially remaining defiant, he was forced to quit as minister and all his attempts to get back his post failed even after Basavaraj Bommai replaced BS Yediyurappa.

While the CD row slipped into the background, the turf war with Laxmi has continued to give Ramesh sleepless nights. The intense hate for her is palpable in all of Ramesh’s speeches and actions, and it often appears that he is spending most of his energy to ensure her defeat  in the ensuing assembly elections, rather than his own victory.

While the brothers as individuals may witness some ups and downs in politics, the Jarkiholis as a family have insulated themselves from any major threat to their clout as they have extended the concept of risk management which they have applied to their businesses to politics as well.

With each brother in a different political party, they ensure that one of them is a minister irrespective of the government in power.  The voters may believe that the brothers are at loggerheads because of their political affiliations and public posturing, but many others would say, blood is thicker than water.

Gautham Machaiah is a senior journalist and political commentator based in Bengaluru. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.