Mallikarjun Kharge: The Congress president who could never be CM

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 19

Congress President elect Mallikarjun Kharge is already being hailed across party circles as “destiny’s own child.”

The description fits the veteran well.

He was an unexpected late entrant into the race for the top post and surfaced only after Rajasthan chief Minister Ashok Gehlot retreated from the contest, choosing state politics over the AICC role.

Kharge’s case was the reverse. He would always be remembered as a Congress President who could never be chief minister despite a commendable nine term run as Karnataka MLA.

He lost the position first to SM Krishna and then to Siddaramaiah.

A man of immense resilience, Mallikaujun Kharge however never let a lost opportunity of CM-ship get the better of his loyalty to outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who rewarded him repeatedly and generously.

Kharge was leader of the party in Lok Sabha in 2014 when the Congress was down to a historic low of 44 MPs and then leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha in 2021. Kharge resigned as LOP Rajya Sabha after he filed his papers for party president’s election.

In his victory today, the old Congress warhorse has scripted a good deal of history.

He is the second Dalit president of the Congress in 51 years, the last being Jagjivan Ram who demitted office in 1971.

Also he is the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years, after Sitaram Kesri was ousted by the Congress Working Committee in 1998.

Kharge is further the only Congressman who has become party president having previously served as leader of opposition in Karnataka assembly, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Starting his career in 1969 as Gulbarga city Congress chief, Kharge went on to remain MLA in Karnataka from 1972 to 2009, a record 37 years.

He never lost an election except the Lok Sabha poll from Gulbarga in 2019, after which Sonia Gandhi brought him to the Rajya Sabha.

For most part of his over half a century political career, Kharge has been a quintessential Karnataka leader moving to the national scene only in 2009 when he first became Gulbarga Lok Sabha MP and retained the seat in 2014.

The 80-year-old contested his first election in 1972 when late prime minister Indira Gandhi gave him an assembly ticket, a break he often professes to in public while recounting his bond with the Gandhis.

There was no looking back for the man with humble beginnings in Bidar’s Varavatti.