Devegowda family relies heavily on divine power to retain power

Devegowda family relies heavily on divine power to retain power

The temple run spree of HD Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister of the Janata Dal Secular-
Congress alliance government continues to keep going unabated and the pace has dwindled
now with the ten days state legislature session scheduled to commence from 10 December in
Belagavi Suvarna Soudha.

HD Kumaraswamy has reiterated umpteen number of time that he has occupied the chief
minister’s position only because of the grace of almighty although the people of the state gave
only 38 legislators to the party in the state Assembly.
HD Devegowda family is again seeking divine blessings to manage the unstable power boat
which has started making dangerous tilts, thanks to the frequent threats of ‘Operation Kamal’ by
the 104 member Bharatiya Janata Party.
A 20 days yaga for the improvement of HD Kumaraswamy’s fragile health apart from totally
destroying all enemies on the political front is currently on at Sringeri, the abode of Sharadamba
in Chikkamagalur district.

In fact HD Kumaraswamy was supposed to be present during the religious rituals on last
Wednesday but couldn’t make it as the party legislators meeting went on late in the evening.
The party has a quota of two cabinet berths and Congress has six to be filled in the over
delayed expansion circus while the contenders are more than a dozen in both parties.

Along with this turmoil the JDS also has another headache of retaining the Chairman position of
the legislative council to the party fold. Basavaraj Horatti is the acting chairman belonging to the
party who’s also eyeing upon becoming a minister in the event of losing the chairman’s position!
HD Kumaraswamy is now rescheduled to fly in a chopper to Sringeri on Friday to be part of the
Poornahuti or concluding part of the 20 days rituals.
It may be recalled here that the second time chief minister was inserted a stent for cardiac
problems 10 years back and the same was replaced a year back following medical
compulsions.

After a hung Assembly came into being in the May 2018 general elections the Congress top
brass under the leadership of Gulam Nabi Azad, AICC General Secretary rushed to the
residence of former Prime Minister HD Devegowda to lay a red carpet for handing over the
CM’s position.

Then Devegowda is said to have offered the same back to the Congress fold in case Mallikarjun
Kharge’s candidature can be considered citing the delicate health of his son. However the
Congress leaders were in no position to take the words lightly as they had enough of previous
experiences with the octogenarian politician.
So the Congress succeeded that a coalition government came into being with JDS as the elder
partner while restricting the former into a minor stakeholder in spite of bagging 80 seats.
On the other hand the Bharatiya Janata Party camp looks to be jubilant as its leaders continue
to keep claiming that the six months old JDS-Congress is on the verge of collapse once the
cabinet expansion takes place.

Prakash Jawdekar, Union Human Resources Minister who had camped for more than a month
in the state on the eve of Assembly elections dropped a bomb shell on Wednesday by claiming:
A quake is expected anytime in the coalition government.

This statement was enough to create ripples in the coalition government giving rise to
allegations and counters. Kota Sreenivas Poojari, BJP leader and leader of the opposition in the
legislative council added fuel in Belagavi by hinting: Talks are in progress with Ramesh
Jharkiholi, Belagavi district in charge minister and he’s welcome to the party with his 10
supporters.

HD Kumaraswamy rebutted all such claims and declared: Earthquakes have been occurring in
the state since last six months ever since the coalition government came into being and now the
term quake itself has suffered a natural death. Our government is rock solid to be perturbed by
such bogus claims!
DK Shivakumar, Power and Major Irrigation Minister countered the BJP leaders’ assertion by
saying: Now it’s been proved beyond doubt that the BJP game changers are into frantic efforts
to topple the duly elected government enjoying a majority support on the floor of the house.
It’s no public secret that Ramesh Jharkiholi, Belagavi district in charge minister is waging a
relentless battle against DK Shivakumar, Congress man Friday for ‘meddling’ with the district
politics.

Lakshmi Hebbalkar,Belagavi Rural Congress MLA and former Karnataka Pradesh Mahila
Congress Committee president has in fact literally become a thorn into the flesh of Ramesh
Jharkiholi as she’s also been religiously laying down bottlenecks in his way of controlling the
sugarcane rich district politics.
DK Shivakumar is the mentor and Godfather of this lady legislator who’s started gunning at the
politically and otherwise all powerful Jharkiholi brothers. She also justifies her stance by
uttering: Since last six years Ramesh Jharkiholi is the district in charge minister and where from
can he has any grouse against losing grip over the district politics.


Irrespective of the party in power at least one member of the Jharkiholi family is bound to
become a minister. Among the Jharkiholi brothers’ Balachandra Jharkiholi is the BJP MLA from
Arabhavi while Satish Jharkiholi, AICC Secretary is the Congress MLA from Yamakanamaradi.
Of late there was Breaking News on some local vernacular TV channels claiming that Ramesh
Jharkiholi has gone to Mumbai with 10-12 Congress MLAs’ to discuss his next course of action.
But on the very next day he held a press conference at his Bengaluru residence to refute the
rumors.

After the much awaited JDS-Congress coordination committee meeting on Wednesday
Siddaramaiah, chairman of the committee along with Danish Ali, JDS General Secretary
announced: The coalition government will be expanded on 22 December followed by
appointment to the Boards and Corporations.

They also clarified that: The appointments will be made in the proportion of 1:3 from the JDS
and Congress among the legislators and some of them will also be considered to the positions
of Parliamentary Secretaries with perks and facilities of cabinet ministers.
But as a tip of the iceberg Ganesh, Kampli Congress MLA from Ballari district has claimed: No
expansion will take place on 22 December as the exercise will lead to dissension and it may
happen only after Lok Sabha elections!

One more strong reason to believe is the hard core fact that the whole of Devegowda family is
very particular on doing good things on auspicious days. So the family may not okay the
proposal of expansion as its shoonya masa now!

-Manohar Yadavatti