Karnataka woman minister who has senior BJP leader in a spot is no pushover: Meet Laxmi Hebbalkar

Over her years in public life, the state women and child development minister has shown a feisty streak below her demure demeanor. As president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee’s women’s unit from 2015 to 2018, Hebbalkar was at the forefront of many public agitations in Karnataka, and faced her share of controversies.

In the latest one, Hebbalkar has accused BJP MLC C T Ravi, 58, of using a derogatory term against her during a round of verbal jousting on the floor of the Legislative Council by the Congress and BJP MLCs over remarks made in Parliament by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Dr B R Ambedkar.

Terms like “drug addict” and “murderer” are reported to have been exchanged by the two sides before Ravi allegedly used the term under contention repeatedly against Hebbalkar.

Never one to turn away from a battle for women’s issues, Hebbalkar took Ravi head-on and filed a complaint of sexual harassment against him. The Belagavi police arrested Ravi on Thursday night, though he has since secured bail.

The Congress leadership has rallied behind Hebbalkar. “The words uttered by C T Ravi are an insult to women as a whole,” Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress president, said. Hebbalkar is considered a close associate of Shivakumar.

In a party unit deeply divided between Shivakumar and CM Siddaramaiah, Hebbalkar also shares cordial ties with the latter, evident in how she managed to get her brother Channaraj Hattiholi entry into the Legislative Council and her son Mrunal Hebbalkar, 30, a ticket for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Belagavi.

While her political career in Belagavi was nurtured initially by the powerful Jarkiholi brothers – one of the several families that control power and wealth in the Belagavi region – Hebbalkar has since had a falling out with Ramesh Jarkiholi, after she was perceived as attempting to usurp the Jarkiholi fiefdom with the help of Shivakumar.

Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was in the Congress till 2019, had a bitter falling out with Shivakumar and Hebbalkar and moved to the BJP. He referred to the Congress leader as “poisonous” after he was forced to quit as a BJP minister in 2021 following allegations of rape, which emerged after a private sex CD surfaced in the public domain.

Despite the falling out with Ramesh Jarkiholi, Hebbalkar has maintained cordial relations with Satish Jarkiholi, Ramesh’s younger brother who is considered a key political power centre in Belagavi and the Congress.

Hebbalkar also has the advantage of caste behind her, being a Panchamasali Lingayat, a community with a sizeable population in north Karnataka. She has been part of the protests to demand OBC status for the community for the last four years. She is also seen as having a sway over the sizeable Maratha population in Belagavi, which borders Maharashtra.

With the Lingayats traditionally favouring the BJP, the promotion of Hebbalkar by a section of the Congress is perceived as an effort to create a countering force among the Lingayats.

For the 2023 state polls, Hebbalkar, who has a postgraduate degree in arts, declared total assets of Rs 12.65 crore. However, her family is believed to be wealthy and own sugar factories.