How a video clip saved the government and ended the Karnataka crisis

Bengaluru, Sep 20: The crisis in Karnataka may have blown over for now. Disgruntled minister, Ramesh Jarkiholi announced that he had no plans of quitting the party and expressed hope that the issues would be resolved.

This was a crisis looking to blow up the JD(S)-Congress coalition in Karnataka. The question is what changed so drastically overnight that the Jarkiholi brothers of Belagavi decided to fall in line and list social causes as their demands over the post of deputy chief minister.

The Congress did attempt to pacify the brothers, but failed. Siddaramaiah who was brought in to play peace maker too had failed and sought the help of the high command. What the Congress could not do, Chief Minister, H D Kumaraswamy ended up doing.

It may be recalled that on Tuesday, Kumaraswamy had called on the sulking brothers at a plush hotel in Bengaluru. Prior to the meeting the brothers remained firm in their demand and even said that they would be carting 16 MLAs to Mumbai to keep them safe from poaching.

Kumaraswamy gave them a patient hearing at first. When the Jarkiholi brothers refused to relent, he is alleged to have shown them a video clip on his mobile. The clip allegedly contained a shot of a deal being struck with a middleman where it was assured to bring down the government in exchange for money.

Kumaraswamy who had listened in to all their demands said that he would have to go public with the clip and even contact the anti-corruption agencies if they still decided to bring down the government. The meeting was over and the crisis had been tided over.

During the meeting the Jarkiholi brothers putforth several demands which included transfer of officials and also taking away charge of Ballari from D K Shivakumar. They also demanded that Ramesh Jarkiholi be made the deputy CM.

Kumaraswamy gave in to all the demands, but said when it came to the post of deputy CM, he had no problems, but that was a matter to be decided by the high command. After these deliberations were completed, the brothers continued to remain adamant. This is when the video clip was shown, following which the matter was sorted out.