Newsmaker: Mallikarjun Kharge is truly talented for Maharashtra politics

The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has been appointed general secretary in charge of the Congress in Maharashtra. He has replaced Mohan Prakash, former VP Singh associate, socialist and ineffective in revamping the party in the state. It was at the intervention of state party leaders who could see their fortunes plummeting unless the central leadership intervened, that Prakash was replaced.

What does he bring to the table?

Kharge is a Dalit, has never lost an election and belongs to the Gulbarga region of Karnataka. These are qualities badly needed in Maharashtra where the Dalit movement is strong but feels pressured by demands from the Marathas. 

The party has been on a losing spree, especially in local and assembly elections, so skills of winning elections will boost the morale. And, Kharge, who began life as a trade union lawyer, knows what it is to struggle, and negotiate. These talents will be required in a state where the Congress gave up independence a long time ago and relies on Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to come/stay in power.

What is the Congress priority in Maharashtra? As elsewhere in India, in Maharashtra too, it is clear that the BJP can be defeated only if there is a united opposition to take on the BJP-Sena combine in 2019 (assuming there is such a combine: Most observers believe that despite the current heartburn, the alliance will continue). 

Is this even possible? For the Congress, Maharashtra poses a conundrum. Throw a stone in local bodies or the assembly and it will be impossible to avoid hitting an ex-Congressman. The Congress has dominated the state and when it did not, its variants have. 

The latest is the NCP. Ask anyone in the NCP how it is different from the Congress and most will scratch their heads and try to remember why they had left the Congress in the first place (to jog their memory, it was on the issue of the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi, but even supremo Sharad Pawar has given up that argument now).

So in a sea of Congressmen, how to tell the real ones from the rest? Or should the Congress not even try and instead, amalgamate all shades of the party to present a united front? It is difficult but not impossible. 

The problems are all the posts, power and pelf that goes with creating a political party — and all that members stand to lose if the part becomes subordinate to another. It is a delicate negotiating operation.

If there is anyone who has the experience to pull it off, it is Kharge. He first became MLA in 1972 and joined the Devaraj Urs government  in Karnataka as minister of state for primary education in 1976. 

He was also part of the Gundu Rao ministry in 1980 when effective land reforms saw the formation of tribunals to transfer land rights to the tillers. He was part of the S Bangarappa cabinet in 1990 and of M Veerappa Moily from 1992 to 1994. His role changed in 1994 when he became the leader of the opposition in the Assembly. In 1999, he was S M Krishna’s home minister.

But the real challenge was as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief in 2005. 

Kharge became the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly for the second time in 2008.

So he knows how organisations can be built and how they can collapse. If he listens to the voices of Congressmen in Maharashtra on the ground and help the central leadership refine its strategy, Maharashtra could yield valuable gains for the Congress in 2019 — the state does send 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha.