Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s assertion that the State will not have a fourth Deputy Chief Minister, seems to have affected the mood of Ramesh Jarkiholi’s followers who were expecting their leader to become one.
Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi’s followers held a meeting in Gokak on Thursday to discuss various issues. “We know that Ramesh Sahukar has a responsibility to ensure that all his followers get ministerial berths,” said a zilla panchayat member who attended the meeting. “He convinced them to resign from the coalition government and led them to the BJP, after promising them that they will be made Ministers. Now, if they are not made Ministers, they will ask him and not the BJP leadership. The BJP leaders should keep their word,” he said.
Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi and his younger brother and BJP MLA, Balachandra Jarkiholi, met at a private hotel in Bengaluru on Thursday.
After the meeting, Mr. Balachandra Jarkiholi told journalists that neither he nor Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi had wanted to be Deputy CM. “It was a creation of the media. We never asked for it,” he said.
Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi’s confidante Mahesh Kumthalli, MLA from Athani, said in Bengaluru they expected that their leader would be made the DCM.
“He deserves to be made the deputy CM. Laxman Savadi is already the DCM and having two DCMs from the district will be historic,” he said. “I will be happy if I am made a Minister. If not, I will happily serve my constituency as a MLA,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Lakhan Jarkiholi, who lost to his elder brother Mr. Ramesh Jarkiholi in Gokak, said BJP would not make him a DCM. “He will not be even made a Minister,” he told journalists in Gokak on Thursday.
“I have already said that If he is made the Irrigation Minister, he will make sure the party goes underwater,” he said.
“The BJP may remain safe if he is given Small Scale Industries or Municipal Administration portfolios,” Mr. Lakhan Jarkiholi added.
