The sudden rise of Mallikarjun Kharge likely to become the next Congress president

With the end of nominations today, Congress finally has three candidates in the race for presidential elections– Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor and KN Tripathi.

Kharge is being considered the ‘official’ Congress candidate by some quarters, despite the party high command’s denial of backing any nominee.

Kharge filed several sets of nomination papers with his proposers including heavyweight leaders like Ashok Gehlot, Digvijaya Singh, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari and Bhupinder Hooda.

Tharoor, who is seen as Kharge’s main contender, said it is a ‘friendly fight’ and called the former Karnataka Congress chief ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of the party.

“It is a friendly contest that is going to happen. We are not enemies or rivals. No disrespect to him but I will represent my ideas,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP was quoted as saying by PTI.

Dubbing Kharge as the ‘candidate of continuity’, Tharoor said those who want change and progress will vote for him. “I am not surprised that the establishment is rallying behind the status quo. If you want the status quo, I think you should vote for Kharge. If you want change and progress in the party with an eye to the rest of the 21st century, then I hope I will stand for that change,” Tharoor told reporters.

Spoke to Mallikarjun @kharge ji to wish him the best in the upcoming election. He recalled when I first met him in Bangalore during my UN days, when he was Home Minister. We worked well together in the LokSabha & he was gracious as ever in wishing me luck. @INCIndia

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 30, 2022

As per NDTV, Kharge was told by veteran leader and Rahul Gandhi’s close aide, KC Venugopal, that the top brass wants him to contest the Congress president election after a late-night meeting.

Kharge is likely to resign from the post of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha adhering to Congress’ “one person, one post” formula, sources told NDTV.

Who is Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leadership’s ‘choice’ after Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot for the presidential polls?

Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Mallikarjun Kharge?

Known as a Gandhi family loyalist, 80-year-old Mallikarjun Kharge is an eight-time MLA, two-time Lok Sabha MP, and currently a Rajya Sabha member.

Kharge, a leader from the Dalit community, has stayed away from controversies and maintained a clean image throughout his decades-old political career.

Born on 21 July 1942 in a poor family in Karnataka’s Gulbarga district, Kharge studied Law and practised for a while before joining the Congress in 1969, as per Indian Express.

Kharge ventured into electoral politics in 1972 and four years later, he became a minister for the first time in the Devaraj Urs government.

He won from his home constituency of Gulbarga nine consecutive times in the Karnataka Assembly elections between 1972 and 2008.

After that, he shifted to national politics and was victorious in two successive Lok Sabha polls (2009 and 2014) from the Gulbarga seat.

In 1994, Kharge was appointed the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, a role he assumed again in 2008.

Kharge has served as a minister in six different governments in Karnataka but missed his chance at the chief minister post thrice– in 1999, 2004 and 2013.

In 1999, he lost the Karnataka chief minister chair to SM Krishna and had to settle for the home portfolio.

Dharam Narayan Singh was made the chief minister in 2004. As per News18, Kharge’s supporters had beseeched him to express his dissatisfaction with Sonia Gandhi and decline the ministerial berth. However, the seasoned leader had rejected their requests, saying he never went against the Gandhis and would not embarrass them.

In 2013, Congress came back with a thumping majority in Karnataka and Siddaramaiah was sworn oath as the chief minister.

Working as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee in 2005-08, Kharge had delivered Congress the largest number of seats against the then ruling alliance of BJP and JD(S), notes The Hindu.

He worked as Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh government– first as Labour minister (May 2009-June 2013) and then as minister of Railways (June 2013-May 2014).

From 2014-19, he was the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

Kharge, known as ‘solillada saradara’ (a leader without defeat), suffered the first loss in his electoral career in 2019 when he was trounced by the BJP’s Umesh Jadhav in the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 95,452 votes.

However, the Congress leadership brought him back to the Parliament through the Rajya Sabha route and he was elected unopposed to the Upper House in June 2020 from Karnataka.

A follower of Buddhism, Kharge is the founder-chairman of Siddharth Vihar Trust which constructed the Buddha Vihar complex in Gulbarga, as per Times of India.

Kharge played a significant role in granting the special status for six districts of the Kalyana Karnataka region under Article 371J of the Constitution during the second UPA government, reports The Hindu.

If he wins, the veteran leader will become the sixth from southern India to hold the top Congress post after Independence.

The other leaders include B Pattabhi Sitaramayya, N Sanjiva Reddy, K Kamaraj, S Nijalingappa and P V Narasimha Rao.

After Lingayat community leader S Nijalingappa, who held the Congress president post from 1968-69, Kharge will become the second politician from Karnataka to helm the grand old party.

Moreover, if elected, Kharge will be the first non-Gandhi Congress president in over 20 years.

With inputs from agencies

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