Laxmi Hebbalkar
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A brief biography
As of 2024
Johnson T A, Dec 22, 2024: The Indian Express
One of the commonly narrated stories about Karnataka Congress leader Laxmi Hebbalkar, 49, when she first emerged as a candidate for the Assembly elections over a decade ago in the Belagavi region, was that she had been identified by the Congress top brass as a leader for the future at a conference of young party leaders.
The two-time MLA and Congress loyalist – who lost the state polls in 2013 and the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 from Belagavi – is now the sole woman minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka on the back of two successive poll victories from the Belgaum Rural constituency in the 2018 and 2023 state polls.
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.
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.
