Jarkiholi Brothers Suffer Major Setback in Hukkeri Coop Polls as Ramesh Katti's Swabhimani Panel Sweeps Elections

Bengaluru: Former MP Ramesh Katti-led 'Swabhimani Panel' has swept the fiercely fought elections to the Hukkeri Rural Electricity Cooperative Society causing a huge embarrassment to politically powerful Jarkiholi brothers and former MP Annasaheb Jolle.

Riding on the 'Locals Vs Outsiders' sentiment, the Katti panel won all the 15 seats in the elections held on Sunday. The counting of votes was held late on Sunday night. The election, which could have been a non-event in the normal circumstances, grabbed the attention of the state with the entry of Jarkiholis.

For the unversed, the Jarkiholi family has three MLAs in PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi, Balachandra and Ramesh, an MLC in Lakhan and an MP in Priyanka, Satish's daughter. Unlike other political families, these brothers are strategically spread across both Congress (Satish and Priyanka) and the BJP (Ramesh and Balachandra) so that one of them will be the minister whichever party comes to power and retain the strings of Belagavi district administration in their hands.

Jarkiholis entered the society election claiming misuse of power by the Katti family. But sources close to them claim it was part of their plan to field Satish's son Rahul from Hukkeri in the 2028 assembly elections. Two months ago, they even wooed members of the society and took control of it. On his part, Ramesh painted Jarkiholis as outsiders and was successful in building an "insider versus outsiders' narrative.

At the start, it appeared Jarkiholis' appeal was gaining traction among the voters with all the four brothers-Satish, Ramesh, Balachandra and Lakhan - hitting the campaign trail. For a change, Satish, who usually does the ground work by sitting in closed doors, led the campaign of his panel.

But as the campaign progressed, the 'insider versus outsider' narrative and a feeling that Jarkiholis are trying to push Lingayats, who dominated the district politics for decades, to the sideline, gained the ground resulting in the defeat of Jarkiholis led panel.

"Belagavi is a Lingayat dominated district and they dominated its politics for decades. But over the past two decades, Jarkiholis, who are STs, are ruling the roost leaving Lingayats with a feeling of being sidelined. This feeling made all other communities including Lingayats rally behind Ramesh Katti and tilted the tide in his favour," says Mahadeva R, an advocate.

Ashok Chandaragi, a Kannada activist, who follows the district politics very closely, believes that this Lingayat sentiment is likely to carry in coming elections too in order to curb the influence of Jarkiholis.

It is already evident with Rajya Sabha member Irana Kadadi giving a call to Ramesh Katti to take leadership of Lingayats in Belagavi, like his late brother Umesh Katti did and end the hegemony of Jarkiholis.

First major poll debacle for Jarkiholis

The society election results also marked the first ever significant electoral defeat of the Jarkiholi brothers in the last two and half decades barring the one of Satish Jarkiholi in the by-elections to the Belagavi Lok Sabha seat by a narrow margin.

The defeat becomes even more significant as it comes at a time when Satish Jarkiholi, most influential and shrewd among Jarkiholi brothers, nursed an ambition to be in the CM's race after the 2028 assembly elections.

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