BJP should not try to dislodge the Congress government, says MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi

There is a lot of confusion regarding change of leadership in Karnataka as well as in-fighting between Congress leaders to dislodge the CM. But the BJP should stay away from this situation. It should stay neutral now and not try to dislodge the Congress government, Ramesh Jarkiholi, BJP MLA and former minister, said in Belagavi on Monday (November 24, 2025).

I appeal to the BJP leadership to remain neutral in today’s political situation in Karnataka. They should not interfere in this. It is like a dirty swamp and we should not get into that, he told reporters.

“There is confusion among leaders about power sharing. Some leaders are trying to dislodge the CM so that they can occupy the post. Let them do what they want. We should wait for the next elections and come to power with full majority. This is my personal opinion,” he said.

“The Congress has the mandate now; let them complete their term. Also, it is not good for the State to face repeated elections,” he said. He said that the Congress government was anti-people and would earn the people’s wrath if it continues in power for the next two and a half years. “The people will naturally choose the BJP then,’’ he added.

To a query, he joked that he would choose himself as the best candidate for CM in Karnataka. He said that he, along with R. Ashok, Leader of the Opposition, was the senior most MLA in the BJP. “We are the only two leaders who have won seven Assembly polls. All the rest are junior to us. I think I should be the CM next,” he said.

On whether Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar would switch to the BJP and form a government with the support of the saffron party, Ramesh Jarkiholi said such a situation was unlikely. “However, if that happens, I will never accept him as my leader. That is impossible in this life. If Mr. Shivakumar is to cross over to the BJP, then I will think of the political options open to me. I will do what the Gods tell me then,” he said. “I do not think that Mr. Shivakumar has the support of a majority of MLAs in the Congress. If it was true, he would have become the CM already,” he said.

He refuted H.D. Deve Gowda’s claim that Siddaramaiah was responsible for the fall of the H.D. Kumaraswamy government in 2019. “Mr. Gowda is a senior leader and I do not know what he meant by the statement. But I can clarify that it is not right to blame Mr. Siddaramaiah for the defections. If anyone was responsible for the fall of the JD(S)-Congress alliance government, it was Mr. Shivakumar. I know it as I was among the frontline leaders of the rebellion. I got upset because Mr. Shivakumar was interfering with Belagavi politics and we engineered defections of a lot of MLAs so as to pull down the government. Even a small child knows this,“ he said.

To a query, he said that he was not in favour of a separate North Karnataka state. “I am a supporter of a united Karnataka. We should try to develop as one. However, I am in favour of dividing big districts like Belagavi for administrative convenience. I am in favour of forming a separate Gokak district. During the first term of Siddaramaiah as CM, a final decision about division of Belagavi was taken. But it was put off due to some technical issues,” he said.