Former MP Anna Saheb Jolle elected Belagavi District Central Cooperative Bank president, Raju Kage vice-president

Anna Saheb Jolle, former MP and BJP leader, was elected president of the Belagavi district central cooperative bank while Congress MLA Bharamgouda Alagouda (Raju) Kage was elected the vice-president. The two leaders were elected unopposed as other candidates did not file nominations, in Belagavi on November 10.

In an election that was not fought on party lines, the Jolle-Jarkiholi panel was pitted against the Katti-Savadi panel. After a three month long, intense campaign, the Jolle-Jarkiholi panel claimed to have won 13 of the 16 posts of director in the bank.

The Katti-Savadi panel won the rest. Ramesh Katti and Laxman Savadi, both former presidents of the bank, did not file nominations.

Is there a power-sharing agreement?

Satish Jarkiholi, district in-charge Minister said that the two panels had come to an understanding that the president would be changed after 30 months, and that a leader from the Congress would be made the president then. Mr. Kage is a long-time loyalist of Mr. Savadi.

Balachandra Jarkiholi, MLA, told reporters that his panel had kept the promise of electing Lingayat leaders as the president and vice-president of the bank. He said that the president’s post was given to the Jolle-Jarkiholi panel and the vice-president is from the Katti-Savadi panel. He denied as baseless reports that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had intervened at the last minute to ensure unanimous elections.

He denied any power-sharing agreement on change of leadership after 30 months. “If this duo does well and develops the bank, let them continue for 10 years,” Balachandra Jarkiholi said.

He described Mr. Jolle as the Manmohan Singh of Belagavi district. “Mr. Jolle is a professional banker and expert in co-operative laws. I am sure he will lead the bank to the first place in Karnataka and push the deposits to ₹10,000 crore in five years. Some customers had withdrawn deposits of around ₹200 crore only because gold prices had gone up. In ten years or so, we will achieve a better financial position than the Dakshina Kannada DCC bank (SCDCC Bank),” he said.

Mr. Jolle said he would use his domain expertise to strengthen the bank.

Mr. Kage said he is the seniormost among all directors, and has the moral authority to reprimand them if they did not work properly.

This development seems to end the year-long political developments in the bank. It also ends the two-decade-old control of the Katti family over the biggest lending agency in the district. Ramesh Katti resigned as the president after indications of a vote of no-confidence motion from the directors.

Mr. Jolle’s followers said that the former MP is of the belief that Ramesh Katti had not helped him in the poll campaign for the Chikkodi Lok Sabha seat.

History of Belagavi DCC Bank

The bank was founded in 1919. After 106 years, the financial institution has grown to have 100 branches. It has deposits of over ₹2,842 crore, and a working capital of ₹4,078 crore. It has a loan recovery rate of 96.84%.

It has given priority sector loans of about ₹1,356 crore to 3.4 lakh farmers. It has given loans of around ₹621 crore to eight co-operative sugar factories and ₹644 crore to 11 private sugar factories.