Congress MLA Lakshmi Hebbalkar countered the allegations made against her by the former Minister and BJP leader Ramesh Jarkiholi, at a Praja Dhwani rally in Pant Balekundri village of Belagavi district on Wednesday.
Mr. Jarkiholi is making false and baseless allegations against her purely out of despair and vendetta, she said. She said that she has carried out unprecedented amount of development work in Belagavi Rural constituency. Mr. Jarkiholi is unable to digest her popularity and is, hence, making abusive statement against her, she said.
Mr. Jarkiholi has been an MLA for 23 years. Of them, for 16 years his party has been in power. But what has he done for Gokak in all these years? Why he is talking about someone like me who has been a legislator only for four years? she said.
She said that there is rampant corruption in Gokak. “Mr. Jarkiholi’s constituency is fit to be called the republic of Gokak. There is a lot of corruption in police stations, tahsildar offices and sub-registrar offices. Those wanting to buy land have to pay ₹10 lakh per acre as bribe,” she said.
“Mr. Jarkiholi defected to the BJP after accepting hundreds of crores of rupees in bribe from the BJP. He has sold himself while changing parties and is now trying to make false allegations of corruption against us. But I want to tell him something. Forget corruption, the Gokak MLA owes crores of rupees in sugarcane arrears to farmers. He should clear all those arrears and then talk about other things,” she said.
She said that a farmer committed suicide after leaving a note in which he mentioned Mr. Jarkiholi as the reason for his death. But all are quiet, she said.
She said that Nagesh Munnolkar, a follower of Mr. Jarkiholi and a ticket aspirant for the Belagavi Rural constituency from the BJP, had met her before the last elections expressing his desire to join the Congress and sought ₹40 lakh for it.
She accused Mr. Jarkiholi of politically targeting leaders like Vivekrao Patil, Veerakumar Patil and Mahantesh Kavatimath. “I have survived with the support of voters and leaders like Satish Jarkiholi,” she said.
She also accused the former MLA and BJP leader Sanjay Patil of misappropriating government funds.
Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah said that only Ms. Hebbalkar had filed an application for ticket from Belagavi Rural constituency and she will be the obvious choice of the party. She is a pro-people leader. Such people should be in the Assembly, he said.
KPCC working president Mr. [Satish] Jarkiholi, Member of Legislative Assembly Channaraj Hattiholi and Zameer Ahmed and other leaders spoke.
