Ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections, a political slugfest has ensued between Belagavi Rural MLA and Congress leader Lakshmi Hebbalkar and Gokak BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi over the unveiling of the Shivaji statue at the former’s constituency.
Lakshmi, in her first tenure as the MLA of the constituency, said on Wednesday she developed the state of Shivaji Maharaj at the Rajhansgad fort, 13 kilometres from Belagavi, and would inaugurate it shortly.
However, Jarkiholi on Thursday,announced that he invited chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders to unveil the statue as he helped release funds for the project and the development of the fort.
Last Friday, Hebbalkar questioned the BJP legislator for interfering with the affairs of her constituency.
The Kannada and culture department and tourism ministry drafted an action plan to develop the Rajhansgad fort for ₹4.15 crore in 2006-07.
However, the plan was executed in 2021, where ₹3 crore was spent to develop the fort, including the construction of a new temple and a 20-foot heightened bronze statue of Shivaji Maharaj sitting on the throne. The entire project is in the final stage.
The BJP said that Hebbalkar is trying to inaugurate the project on March 5 before the election code of conduct comes into effect, and alleged that she invited Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former chief minister Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar and many leaders of her party from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Yuvaraj Sambhajiraje, a 13th descendant of Shivaji Maharaj, and actors Ritesh Deshmukh and Amol Kolle were the special invitees, they said. She also proposed to conduct two days of cultural programmes on March 4 and 5, the party said.
Jarkiholi, who last Thursday pledged to defeat Lakshmi in the assembly election, said that he would unveil the statue before her as the funds were spent by the BJP government and not Congress.
“I’ll not allow to make it as the Congress programme. I’ll bring the chief minister, the minister of Kannada and the Culture and Tourism ministers to the programme. Who is she to inaugurate the fort and unveil the statue as our government has released the funds, and we have to do the same,” he said.
On the other hand, Hebbaklar said that the project was proposed in 2006, and started in 2018 only after she became a legislator.
“Though BJP is governing, I ran to pillar to post at Vidhan Soudha to get approvals for the project and completed the work. Since it is in my constituency, I’ve to take a decision and not others,” she said.
BJP district president Sanjay Patil, who represented the constituency for two terms before Lakshmi, said the credit for developing the fort and establishing the statue must be his as he had got approved the project by pressuring then tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy and the present minister CT Ravi who okayed and ordered the public works department to go ahead with the project.
Patil said he was not opposing Lakshmi to claim the credit on the work, but to the words, she had said. “I have made all the groundwork. Now she is saying that developing the fort and establishing the statue of Shivaji Maharaj was her dream, ‘am opposing. She is doing vote politics to attract the Marathi votes,” he said.
Patil, who was defeated by Lakshmi by a margin of about 40,000 votes in the 2018 election alleged that Lakshmi was politicising the issue.
“The government will look after the matter, and not her to decide on a government programme,” he said.
