Belagavi (Karnataka), Apr 5 (IANS): Congress leader Lakhan Jarkiholi, the younger brother of former Karnataka minister and Sleaze CD case accused Ramesh Jarkiholi, on Monday announced he would campaign for BJP candidate, Mangala Angadi, in forthcoming Belgaum Lok Sabha bypoll.

Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar and Angadi, widow of former Union Minister, Suresh Angadi met Jarkiholi at his residence in Gokak and invited him to canvas on behalf of the BJP ahead of the April 17 poll.

"For me, my eldest brothers Ramesh and Balachandra are most important. They are in deep trouble, I cannot see them in trouble anymore. I want to help them, that is why I have decided to work in favour of the BJP," Lakhan Jarkiholi told reporters while announcing his decision to campaign for BJP instead of his brother, Satish Jarkiholi, who is the Congress candidate.

Shettar told reporters that Lakhan Jarkiholi is deeply upset with many issues in Congress, hence, he has decided to campaign for them. "Even Ramesh and Balachandra will campaign for us from next week onwards," he said.

Lakhan Jarkiholi is known to handle elections on behalf of his brother in Gokak for nearly two decades. However, he had contested against his elder brother, who had quit the Congress and joined the BJP, in the 2019 bypolls in which Ramesh Jarkiholi won and became Water Resources Minister.

Incidentally, another brother, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Satish Jarkiholi is contesting against Mangala.

Lakhan Jarkiholi, the youngest of the five brothers, was quite vocal and demanded that state Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar must resign from his post on moral grounds as his name too has cropped in Sleaze CD case, like his brother's.