4 min readGokak (belagaviMay 3, 2023 03:41 PM IST
First published on: May 3, 2023 at 03:00 PM IST
In the electorally significant Belagavi district bordering Maharashtra, the feudal term for landlord, sahukar, is used as an honorific for the powerful. Though home to several political families, none of the sahukars wield the same influence as the Jarkiholi brothers — who represent three neighbouring constituencies located at the centre of Karnataka’s largest district.
All three Jarkiholis — Satish, Ramesh and Balachandra — are in active politics for more than two decades, and have repeatedly got elected from their bastions, despite efforts by other leaders, cutting across party lines, to undermine their influence. Their youngest brother, Lakhan Jarkiholi, is an MLC, while another brother, Bheemshi, has also contested polls, albeit as a dummy candidate to facilitate Ramesh’s win in Gokak in 2013.
Among the largest sugar barons in the state, their initial claim to fame — or rather infamy — goes back to the days of their father Laxman Jarkiholi, who was chargesheeted for murdering an excise official over differences related to the sale of illicit liquor. Satish and Bheemshi were also accused in the case in which three people were killed, and weapons like AK-47s and sten guns were recovered. The court, while granting bail to Satish and Bheemshi, had said that “a thoughtless parent had recklessly committed his children into committing a ghoulish crime”. All of them were later acquitted in the case.
The incident struck fear in the minds of the people in the region, helping the Jarkiholi brothers climb the political ladder and establish one of the largest business empires in the region, with multiple sugar factories in the largely agrarian district.
Satish, who is now a KPCC working president, was the first in the family to test political waters, and got elected as an MLC in the late ’90s on a JD(S) ticket. He was among the Siddaramaiah loyalists who shifted to the Congress along with the former CM in 2006. He was also a minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, and is known for his rationalist views. The three-time MLA from Yemkanmardi secured a narrow victory in 2018, and is up against Basavaraj Hundri this time in the ST-reserved segment. To prove that the 2018 result was a fluke, Satish has said that he has set himself a target of being among the top 10 in terms of winning margins in this year’s Assembly elections.
Another prominent member of the family is Ramesh, who was among the first to defect from the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019, and had become the water resources minister in the B S Yediyurappa government. He was forced to resign over a sex CD scandal in 2021. Known for his spat with KPCC president D K Shivakumar, in recent months, Ramesh has emerged as the most prominent leader in the BJP’s Belagavi unit. Seeking re-election for the sixth time from Gokak, he is also working to ensure the defeat of Congress candidates Laxmi Hebbalkar in Belgaum Rural and Laxman Savadi in Athani. He is up against the Congress’s Mahantesh Kadadi, a distant relative of BJP MP Eranna Kadadi. Locals feel that defeating Ramesh would be a tough task, considering the influence of the sahukars in Gokak.
Balachandra, who contests from Arabhavi and maintains a low-profile, shifted to the BJP from the JD(S) in 2008, during the first “Operation Kamala” in the state. He was made a Cabinet minister in the first Yediyurappa government, and is the current chairman of the Karnataka Milk Federation.
On the dominance of the family in the region, Satish said people decide who they vote for. “How we treat people, and what our relationship with them is, determines our victory or defeat,” he said.
Jarkiholi brothers- Satish Jarkiholi, Lakhan Jarkiholi, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Balachandra Jarkiholi. (File) 
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