PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi
Credit: DH File Photo
District Minister Satish Jarkiholi continued his scathing attack against party MLA from Kuduchi MLA Mahendra Tammanavar and Athani MLA Laxman Savadi for for working against the interests of the party in Chikkodi Lok Sabha constituency.
“I will not lodge any complaint with the Congress high command against anyone. There is no use... the leadership will not take any action. Congress nominee from Chikkodi Priyanka Jarkiholi got less votes in Athani and Kuduchi. I am hurt, but what can I do,” the minister told reporters here on Friday.
“I would have been happy even with 10,000 votes lead in Athani Assembly segment. Forget about lead, the BJP candidate garnered 7,000 more votes than the Congress nominee. Anyone can understand what went wrong,” Jarkiholi said.
“Three days ahead of the polling day, I toured Athani and Kuduchi. He (Tammannavar) remained elusive and his mobile phone was switched off. Fortunately, my team made sure the Congress candidate took a lead of over 22,000 votes in Kuduchi.
I don’t want to make someone a villain. I am speaking plain truth. People of the constituency are with us... so too the Congress leaders,” Jarkiholi, also the KPCC working president, said.
Tammannavar is said to have worked for his relative and Independent candidate Shambu Kallolikar, a former IAS officer. Kallolikar managed to get over 25,000 votes
Satish Jarkiholi’s daughter Priyanka made her debut to Parliament with a thumping win from Chikkodi constituency.
She polled more than 7.13 lakh votes against her nearest rival Annasaheb Jolle of BJP who got 6.22 lakh votes