A staunch Gandhi family loyalist, here's everything you need to know about INC new President Kharge
Bengaluru (PTI): Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge, a staunch Gandhi family loyalist from Karnataka, has become the Congress' first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.
The 80-year-old leader succeeds Sonia Gandhi at the grand old party's highest office.
Kharge defeated Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor in the October 17 Congress' Presidential polls, which saw over 9,500 delegates across the country voting.
A leader with more than 50 years of experience in politics, he is also the second AICC President from Karnataka after S Nijalingappa and also second Dalit leader after Jagjivan Ram to hold the post.
Kharge was elected MLA for nine times in a row, seeing a steady rise in his career graph from humble beginnings as a union leader in his home district of Gulbarga (renamed as Kalaburagi).
He joined the party in 1969 and went on to become President of the Gulbarga City Congress Committee.
That Kharge was unconquerable at the hustings was mirrored until 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which he bucked the Narendra Modi wave that swept Karnataka, particularly Hyderabad-Karnataka region, and had won from Gulbarga with a margin of over 74,000 votes.
He has won from Gurmitkal assembly constituency nine times before he plunged into the Lok Sabha poll arena in 2009 and has been a two time MP from Gulbarga parliamentary segment. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls the veteran leader was defeated by BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes.
For Kharge, popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat), this was the first electoral loss in his political life spanning more than five decades.
A hard-boiled Congressman and loyal to the core to the Gandhi family, Kharge has played multiple roles in different ministries that has enriched his experience as an administrator. He has also served as the leader of the opposition in Karnataka Assembly and President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.
Kharge was leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019 but could not become the leader of opposition, as the grand old party could not get the post as its numbers were less than the mandated 10 percent of the total number of seats in the Lower House.
He has served as Union Cabinet Minister for Labour and Employment, also Railways and Social Justice and Empowerment- in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. He had also held various portfolios in successive Congress governments that governed the state.
He was Home Minister of Karnataka in one of the most trying times, under S M Krishna as the Chief Minister, as the tenure saw kidnapping of Kannada thespian Rajkumar by the notorious poacher Veerappan and the Cauvery river water conflict, both of which had created a law and order situation in the state.
Kharge was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in June 2020 and was the 17th Leader of the Opposition in Upper House until recently, ahead of his resignation from the post to contest the Congress' Presidential election. He had succeeded Ghulam Nabi Azad as LoP in February last year.
He was several times seen as a top contender to become the Chief Minister in Karnataka, but could never occupy the post.
"Why do you keep saying Dalit again and again? Don't say that. I'm a Congressman," Kharge has said several times in the past, whenever the Dalit CM topic cropped up with him as the contender.
Sober by temperament and nature, Kharge has never landed in any major political trouble spot or controversy.
Born in a poor family at Varavatti in Bidar district on July 21, 1942, he did his schooling and BA as well as Law in Kalaburagi. He was into legal practice for some time before plunging into politics.
He is a follower of Buddhism and is the founder-chairman of Siddharth Vihar Trust that has built the Buddha Vihar complex in Kalaburagi.
Married to Radhabai on May 13, 1968, they have two daughters and three sons. One son, Priyank Kharge is a MLA and a former Minister in Karnataka.
A vocal critic of the Narendra Modi-led government, Kharge's elevation to head the Congress is expected to give a boost to the cadre amid hopes that it would unify the party leadership in the state that goes to Assembly polls by April next year.
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Kumaraswamy hits out at Cong over denotification charge, says he has no role
Mysuru (PTI): JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday hit out at the ruling Congress in Karnataka for leveling allegations against him in connection with a land denotification in Bengaluru, and claimed that he had no role in it.
He also claimed that the investigations into the case have found no illegality but, aimed at targeting him, the case has been "kept open."
The Congress on Thursday asked the Lokayukta to expedite its probe against former Chief Ministers B S Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy in connection with the alleged denotification of land here.
Ministers Krishna Byre Gowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Santhosh Lad had held a joint press conference and released documents regarding the denotification of 1.11 acres of land at Gangenahalli in Kasaba hobli of Bengaluru North.
"....I'm not running away, I need not take protection under someone else's name, on issues concerning me... the only relationship with that property is, it is related to my wife's mother, I'm not denying it. Have I done the denotification?" Kumaraswamy told reporters.
Stating that he was under the impression that Krishna Byre Gowda was "intelligent as he has studied abroad," while he had studied at a school in Haradanahalli in Hassan, Kumaraswamy said in 2015 Siddaramaiah, "through" a person named Jaya Kumar Patil, had filed a case against him in this cases in which Yediyurappa is accused number 1 (A1) and he is accused number 2 (A2).
"For the last three months they have been struggling to do something (against me).....in 2015 this case was filed with Lokayukta. TIll 2018 Siddaramaiah was the Chief Minister, what was he doing without getting investigated?" he said, adding that after he made allegations against the Siddaramaiah government in connection with CSR funds and transfer related issues, they started looking for "means to tackle him."
Alleging that a 'benami' named Rajashekharaiah, "who has nothing to do with the said land (that was notified)", gave a petition when Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister in 2007, seeking denotification of the land, which was acquired 30 years ago, Krishna Byre Gowda has alleged Kumaraswamy had then asked officials to move the file in this regard.
He has said, the original owner of the said land had 21 heirs, who gave a general power of attorney to Kumaraswamy’s mother-in-law.
Further pointing out that when Yediyurappa was the CM in 2010, despite the then principal secretary to the urban development department K Jothiramalingam noting on the file that it was not a fit case for denotification, the former ordered denotification, Gowda claimed. "Subsequently after the denotification of the land in June, 2010, it was registered in the name of Kumaraswamy’s brother-in-law Channappa in July that year."
Citing the documents, Kumaraswamy asked, "what is there in it? Have I denotified (the land)? or have I prepared the grounds for denotification? What is my role in it?"
Accusing Krishna Byre Gowda of leveling allegations against him to "appease someone", he said: "no one can shake me...I will not discuss such things....get it investigated in whatever way you want."
Questioning as to what evidence was there to prove that he had asked officials to denotify, the former CM rubbished the allegation that Yediyurappa subsequently did the denotification to benefit him, and pointed out that "everyone knows that there was a fight between both of us then. Will Yediyurappa do something in favour of me?"
So far in his political life he has not sought favour or protection from anyone, he said, "I have said that if anyone one brings out even a single minor mistake of his while in power twice, he will not remain in politics for five seconds."
Accepting that the denotification had happened during Yediyurappa's tenure and that his in-laws brought the property, Kumaraswamy asked as to what was his role in it or was it done illegally?
Already inquiries have happened on all these and the investigators in their report had come to the conclusion that it was a legal transaction, he said. "But, to target me, the probe was not closed and was kept open. Their aim is to target Kumaraswamy, and they are looking for all possible things to target me."
