Ramesh Jarkiholi lobbying through former Maha CM for top post?

Bengaluru: Even while the pressure on Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for reconstituting or reshuffling the cabinet is mounting, senior MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi is using influencing of a leader from outside State for a berth in the ministry. He is said to be in contact with former chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and trying to lobby for a place in the cabinet through him.

Ramesh Jarkiholi who is now in Goa 'for campaigning' for BJP candidate there, has been frequenting Fadnavis quarters now and then and reportedly had a couple of rounds of talks with him.

But a million dollar question is why Jarkiholi is shying away from directly dealing with Chief Minister Bommai or the Karnataka BJP leaders? It has got something to do with Jarkiholi's grand designs. By the kind of campaign he has been mounting one can suspect that he is aiming for the position of CM's post. The following he has developed in the Lingayat and Veerashaiva belt of North Karnataka in the past year has given him enough backing to claim the top post in the government. The North Karnataka region has 91 legislators - the largest number among all other regions. Other regions are Coastal, Old Mysore, Malnad and Bayaluseeme.

The Bombay Karnataka as it is known comprises Belagavi, Dharwad, Hubballi, the uphill taluks of Uttara Kannada, and Bagalkot that has connections with Maharashtra not just socially but also politically.

The State BJP leaders have expressed shock over Jarkiholi's move of taking the cabinet berths issue of Karnataka to Maharashtra. In a meeting held between the two leaders in a hotel in Panaji on Thursday, Jarkiholi played the victim card and told Fadnavis that a few leaders in the party were targeting him. "The sacrifices I made for strengthening the party in North Karnataka has been forgotten by the leaders," he reportedly told the former Maharashtra CM.