BENGALURU: In an effort to avert a showdown and its potential impact on state politics, Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal, on Thursday asked working president of KPCC, Eshwar Khandre, to rush to Belagavi and broker peace between the Jarkiholi brothers and state unit women's wing president, Laxmi Hebbalkar, over control of Primary Land Development (PLD) bank.
Sources in Congress said Mr Eshwar Khandre was asked to rush to Belagavi following a veiled threat by Mr Ramesh Jarkiholi: “Something very serious will happen if we are defeated in polls to PLD bank” Therefore, top leaders headed by Mr Venugopal decided to dispatch Mr Khandre to persuade Mrs Hebbalkar, the local legislator, to make peace with Jarkiholi brothers.
Sources said that she claimed the support of nine of the 14 directors. Now, it also turned into a battle between Lingayats and STs. Backed by Lingayats, cutting across party lines, and including Umesh Katti and Prabhakar Kore of the Bharatiya Janata Party and her mentor and water resources minister D.K. Shivakumar, Ms Hebbalkar reportedly took nine directors, majority of them Lingayats, to an undisclosed place. She and her supporters would surface at the venue of voting.
Meanwhile, sensing that election could go against them, the Jarkiholi brothers red-flagged the state Congress leaders saying that if they failed to get the bank administration, they would walk out of the party with atleast ten legislators. For public, their message was couched and Mr Jarkiholi said, “Something very serious will happen if we lose.” Early this week, this election issue spiraled into a major controversy in the Congress office forcing Mr Venugopal to adjourn the meeting to another venue but was unsuccessful in his effort to get both Mrs Hebbalkar and Jarkiholi brothers to arrive at a consensus on elections to PLD banks.
