Mallikarjun Kharge may have upper hand in race for Congress president post

Senior Congress leader from Karnataka Mallikarjun Kharge (80) filed his nomination for the election of Congress president as Digvijaya Singh withdrew from the race. 

The contest for the post would now be between Kharge, Shashi Tharoor and KN Tripathi, who was a former Jharkhand minister.

Nominations for the post of Congress president closed at 3 pm on Friday and results will be declared on October 19. Withdrawals are possible till 8 October.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was being seen as a frontrunner in the race before he opted to pull out after meeting Sonia Gandhi on Thursday. 

Tharoor’s chances are rated low within the party, with Kharge emerging as the ‘official’ candidate. But Tharoor ruled out withdrawing from the race.

“He is Bhishma Pitamah of Congress, no disrespect to him. I will represent my ideas,” he said in his contest with Kharge.

“Congress should be a party for change. We hope to strengthen the party and take the country forward,” he said, after filing his nomination for the post of Congress president. The Congress leader issued his 'manifesto' and said he got signatures of party workers from a dozen states.

Kharge, a Dalit, who had to struggle his entire life, has a good record of winning elections. Barring the Lok Sabha election in 2019, when he lost his home borough, Gulbarga, to the BJP, he has never lost an election.

He won from Gurmitkal assembly constituency in Karnataka nine times in a row before he plunged into the Lok Sabha poll arena in 2009. He won from Karnataka’s Gulbarga in 2014 when the tide was against the Congress.

He was leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha in 2014 though not recognised by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. This is because the Congress could get only 44 seats. It was required to get at least 55 seats or 10 per cent of the total strength of the House to qualify for the position of Leader of Opposition. He was chosen as the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Kharge began life as a trade union lawyer.

“What he really wanted was to become chief minister,” said BK Chandrasekhar, a veteran Congress leader in the state. Chandrasekhar added, “He wanted to be CM in 1972 when he won from the Gurmitkal assembly constituency and became a minister in the Devaraj Urs government in 1976.”

He was a minister in the Gundu Rao ministry in 1980, the S Bangarappa Cabinet in 1990 and in the M Veerappa Moily government from 1992 to 1994. His role changed in 1994 when he became the Opposition leader in the assembly. In 1999, he was among the contenders for chief minister but lost to S M Krishna.

In 2013, the BJP government in Karnataka fell but again, Kharge lost another chance. Siddaramaiah got the top job.