Kharge makes way for son-in-law on home turf, unlikely to contest LS polls
Bengaluru (PTI): Amid firm indications that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is unlikely to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the party on Thursday fielded his son-in-law, Radhakrishna Doddamani, from his home turf of Gulbarga.
The octogenarian won the Lok Sabha polls from the Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) segment in 2009 and 2014, but lost the electoral contest in 2019.
"Kharge's hands are full. In addition to managing party affairs at the national level, he has to coordinate with the INDIA bloc partners. Also, his term in the Rajya Sabha is not yet over," a senior Congress leader said.
The Congress president's son, Priyank Kharge, who represents the Chittapur Assembly constituency in Gulbarga and is a minister in the Karnataka government, was not interested to throw his hat in the ring either and hence, Doddamani emerged as the natural choice, according to party sources.
The sources said the Congress president took the final call in the matter.
Doddamani is a businessman who also manages educational institutions. He was said to be initially reluctant to enter the poll fray, but finally gave in.
Born in Kalaburagi, Doddamani has maintained a low profile. He has always worked actively behind the scenes in managing and strategising Kharge's successive electoral campaigns.
He is said to be popular among the Congress workers and supporters, especially in the Gurmitkal Assembly segment, which Kharge represented consecutively between 1972 and 2004.
Kharge was defeated by the BJP's Umesh Jadhav by a margin of 95,452 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Popularly known as "Solillada Saradara (a leader who hasn't faced a defeat)", that was the first electoral loss in Kharge's political life spanning several decades.
Ahead of the 2019 polls, Jadhav had quit as a Congress MLA and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to contest the Lok Sabha election from Gulbarga.
The 2019 election was considered a tough one for Kharge, a nine-time former MLA and two-term former Lok Sabha member, as several senior Congress leaders like Baburao Chinchansur, A B Malaka Reddy and Malikayya Guttedar from the region had quit the party and joined the BJP.
These leaders, along with Jadhav, who had quit the Congress as they were upset over the "dominance" of Kharge and his son (who was then a minister in the Congress-JD-S coalition government in Karnataka) in the region, found a common ground and aggressively campaigned against the father-son duo.
Kharge, who was earlier the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, had served as the Union minister for labour and employment as also for railways and social justice and empowerment in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
He had also held various portfolios in successive Congress governments that governed the southern state and was the president of the Karnataka Congress and leader of opposition in the state Assembly.
Gulbarga for long had been a bastion of the Congress. Before 2019, the party had lost its hold over the constituency only in the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha polls, when the Janata Dal and the BJP won the seat respectively.
Gulbarga has eight Assembly seats of which the Congress currently holds six. The BJP and the JD(S) hold one seat each.
The BJP has again fielded Jadhav from the constituency in the upcoming general election.
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Rain might have washed it away: Meghalaya minister after 4,000 tonnes of coal go missing
Shillong (PTI): As the Meghalaya High Court pulled up the state government over the disappearance of over 4,000 tonnes of coal, a minister on Monday claimed that heavy rain in the state might have washed it away.
The high court has directed the state government to take action against officials under whose watch the coal went missing.
Speaking to reporters, Excise Minister Kyrmen Shylla said, "Meghalaya receives the highest rainfall. You never know... because of rain, the coal might have swept away. Chances are very high."
The high court had on July 25 pulled up the state government over the vanishing of coal from Rajaju and Diengngan villages and instructed it to trace those responsible for lifting the coal illegally.
The minister, however, clarified that he was not trying to justify the disappearance, and admitted there was no conclusive evidence yet to determine whether the loss was due to natural causes or any illegal activity. "I cannot blame just the rain. It could be or it could not be. I really don't have any kind of details," he said.
He asserted that any activity related to coal mining or transportation must be done in accordance with the law and that authorities must ensure illegal practices are curbed.
On allegations of ongoing illegal coal mining and transport in the state, Shylla said concrete evidence was needed to establish such claims and that multiple departments were responsible for monitoring such activities.
"But I believe that our people, if it is for survival, might do it illegally... otherwise nobody wants to do anything that can harm the state," he said.
He expressed optimism that people would abide by the law, especially after the government's announcement of scientific mining.
"We all are happy to welcome it, and we want to see the light of day with this. I believe our people will not do anything that gives the court or law a chance to point fingers at us," he added.
The ban on coal mining and transportation in Meghalaya was imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014, citing rampant unregulated and unsafe mining practices, especially the controversial 'rat-hole' mining technique prevalent in the state.
The tribunal's order came in the wake of mounting concerns over environmental degradation, water contamination, and frequent fatalities in the hazardous mines, particularly in East Jaintia Hills.
On a separate note, the minister also responded to complaints over the dust and debris caused by the ongoing construction along National Highway 6 in East Jaintia Hills, saying, "I appreciate this government for the initiative. For now, it is difficult, but once everything is completed, we will enjoy the benefits."
