New Delhi [India], October 19 (ANI): Mallikarjun Kharge, who was on Wednesday elected the primary Congress chief exterior the Nehru-Gandhi household in 24 years, has his process reduce out as the social gathering faces a number of electoral and organisational challenges.
A person of huge organisational and administrative expertise, Kharge entered the electoral fray for the social gathering’s prime put up after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot opted towards contesting.
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Kharge, 80, was seen as the “establishment’s candidate” towards Shashi Tharoor and polled 7,897 votes towards 1072 acquired by his rival.
A pacesetter who has risen from the grassroots, Kharge belongs to the Dalit group and can the second chief from Karnataka to carry the highest social gathering put up after S Nijalingappa turned the Congress president in 1968.
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In over 5 a long time expertise in lively politics, Kharge has been a union minister, Congress chief in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and has held a number of portfolios in Karnataka the place he was MLA 9 occasions.
A combative, articulate and accessible politician who’s comfy each in Hindi and English, Kharge has been a powerful critic of the BJP-led authorities.
He faces main challenges to work out methods in phrases of Congress revival in Hindi heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as additionally in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The Congress has seen an erosion in its base in another states together with in the northeast. AAP can be searching for to emerge as a challenger in some states.
While Kharge’s speedy challenges are the meeting polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat which is able to go the polls later this yr, a number of different states together with his residence state Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan will go the polls subsequent yr earlier than the essential battle in the 2024 normal election.
Many senior social gathering leaders have left Congress in current months and years and the Congress debacle in Punjab and Uttarakhand meeting polls earlier this yr has been blamed on the alternatives social gathering management made in these states.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who’s on Bharat Jodo Yatra, indicated that Kharge will resolve his position.
“I can’t comment on Congress President’s role, that’s for Mr Kharge to comment on. The President will decide what my role is…and where I will be deployed ask Khargeji, Soniaji,” he stated.
Kharge, a loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi household, has stated he’ll implement the social gathering’s Udaipur Declaration sincerely. The social gathering below his management may even need to calibrate its technique for the bigger opposition unity for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and to tackle the BJP’s formidable “election machine”.
The social gathering may even need to take a name on the social gathering’s Prime Ministerial candidate in view of the expertise of its previous two Lok Sabha polls the place it did not seize the creativeness of individuals.
Kharge will take over as social gathering chief from Sonia Gandhi, who was serving as interim chief after Rahul Gandhi stepped down following the social gathering’s debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Sonia Gandhi had earlier steered the social gathering for 19 years and performed a pivotal position in the formation of two UPA governments.
A former union minister of Labour and Railways, Kharge resigned as Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha to contest the presidential polls in accordance with the one individual, one put up norm.
Born on July 21, 1942, Kharge was lively in pupil politics and was normal secretary in 1964-65 of the Students Union in Government Arts and Science College in Gulbarga.
He was vice chairman of the Students Union Law College, Gulbarga, in 1966-67 and have become president of the Gulbarga City Congress Committee in 1969.
Kharge served as MLA in Karnataka 9 occasions between 1972 and 2009 and held a number of portfolios as minister together with schooling, income, rural growth and enormous and medium trade, transport and water sources.
He was president of Karnataka Congress from 2005 to 2008 and likewise served as Leader of the Opposition in the state meeting from 1996-99 and 2008-09.
He was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014 and elected to Rajya Sabha in 2020. As Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, he raised varied points vociferously.
Kharge was seen as a prime contender for the CM put up in Karnataka a number of occasions however by no means obtained the position. Kharge didn’t protest and continued to work as a disciplined social gathering employee.
Congress leaders stated Kharge would be the second Dalit president in the social gathering’s lengthy historical past.
Kharge is credited with a number of initiatives in his ministerial tenures. As Union Minister he revamped the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, prolonged insurance and advantages for employees in each organised and unorganised sectors and ESIC hospitals all through the nation have been modernized.
As Railway Minister, he gave emphasis to funding tasks in the northeastern states in railway finances and initiated reforms such as creation of Rail Tariff Regulatroy Authority.
With Kharge’s election as the brand new social gathering chief, the Congress will search to blunt the BJP’s assault on it over “family-oriented politics”. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff might not have modified or edited the content material physique)
