Mallikarjun Kharge with Rahul Gandhi, who stays the Congress’s face, in ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. (File)

New Delhi:

Mallikarjun Kharge could have been the Institution candidate within the Congress chiefship contest, however he’s arduous to beat anyway — having gained virtually each election he has fought. 

‘Solillada saradara’, the undefeated chief, is what his supporters name him in Kannada.

The celebration ballot victory makes him the primary non-Gandhi Congress chief in 24 years. He’s additionally the primary Dalit to guide the Congress in 50 years, solely the second after Jagjivan Ram. He is been a politician for greater than 5 a long time, which suggests this is not fairly the one feat he is achieved.

Now within the Rajya Sabha, usually seen as the standard loyalist’s path to being close to the highest rung, he was elected to the meeting in Karnataka 9 occasions earlier than getting into the Lok Sabha in 2009. He stored that Lok Sabha seat even when the Modi wave blew a lot of the Congress away in 2014.

However the Congress withered additional in 2019. He, too, misplaced. He entered the Higher Home in 2021, unchallenged, from Karnataka. Within the Rajya Sabha, he was Chief of Opposition till he resigned final month, loyal to the celebration’s ‘one individual, one publish’ rule to contest the inner election.

At 80, he’s maybe a era or two older than the rival he defeated, 66-year-old Shashi Tharoor.

Age is considered one of two chief factors made in opposition to his being match to lead the Congress into the 2024 contest in opposition to PM Narendra Modi-led BJP.

The opposite is the allegation that he is only a placeholder, a loyalist who is not going to do a lot of a shake-up. Shashi Tharoor underlined that together with his pitch being “Suppose Tomorrow”.

Who’s driving?

Even at the moment, Mr Kharge was eager to drive to Sonia Gandhi’s home after being declared the winner, sources stated. That drive might’ve additional fueled the cost that he’s however a proxy whereas the Gandhis steer him from the backseat. The plan was dropped, and Sonia Gandhi drove to his house as a substitute.

Not that he is apologetic about being a loyalist, although he wasn’t fairly the primary selection on that rely both. He has stated he would seek the advice of the Gandhis and different senior leaders in a “collective decision-making course of”.

He stepped in with out fuss after the Gandhis’ first selection, Ashok Gehlot, didn’t give up as Rajasthan Chief Minister.

A lawyer and union chief, he stepped into the Congress in 1969, when Indira Gandhi was nonetheless Prime Minister. He gained 9 occasions in a row from Gurmitkal in his house district Gulbarga (since renamed to Kalaburagi). He was chief of town Congress and later the state unit, and twice gained the Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga section.

In Karnataka, he led commissions that carried out land reforms amongst different social measures, and later turned a minister too. He served as Chief of Opposition within the Karnataka meeting too.

He was chief of the celebration within the Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019 however not the Chief of Opposition technically, as a result of the celebration didn’t have the numbers — wanting the required 10 per cent of the seats to get the publish.

In Manmohan Singh’s cupboard through the 10 years of UPA rule, he was minister for Labour, Railways and Social Justice. 

In his state, Karnataka, he was House Minister — Quantity 2 to the Chief Minister — however by no means bought the highest chair.

Identification and politics 

Every time his caste identification was cited to say he ought to be Chief Minister in some unspecified time in the future, he’d shut the speak down — in his signature sober tone. “Why do you retain saying Dalit many times? Do not say that. I am a Congressman,” he stated when this got here up through the Congress president’s election too.

“A humble celebration employee from an unusual household has at the moment bought the honour of changing into the celebration’s president,” he stated in a post-win deal with.

He was born at Varavatti in Bidar district of Karnataka on July 21, 1942, and bought a BA and a legislation diploma from Kalaburagi. He labored as a lawyer earlier than getting into politics fulltime. A 12 months earlier than the political plunge, he bought married in 1968. With spouse Radhabai, he has two daughters and three sons.

One among his sons, Priyank Kharge, is a legislator in Karnataka who’s been a minister within the earlier Congress authorities.