Lok Sabha 2024 : Kharge may leave Gulbarga seat!

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is considering not contesting from his traditional Lok Sabha seat Gulbarga in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Actually, being the Congress President, he has to focus on the national level, which is why someone else can contest from Gulbarga seat instead of Kharge. According to current discussions, Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani is the strongest contender to contest elections from Gulbarga. Mallikarjun Kharge has been MP from Gulbarga seat twice but had to face defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Kharge will not contest elections for this reason
A senior Congress leader said that the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha has a lot of responsibilities. He has to look after the affairs of the party at the national level, and also has to coordinate with the leaders of the opposition alliance. Besides, his tenure of four years is left in Rajya Sabha also. In such a situation, Kharge himself is not in favor of contesting the Lok Sabha elections. Kharge's son Priyank is also an MLA from Chittapur assembly of Gulbarga region and is currently a minister in the state government. In such a situation, he is also not interested in contesting the Lok Sabha elections. This is the reason why the name of Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani is being discussed.

Radhakrishna Doddamani stays away from discussions
Doddamani is a businessman and looks after the management of several educational institutions. Doddamani was also not interested in contesting the elections earlier, but he has been asked to be ready to contest the elections. Doddamani was also born in Gulbarga and he does not like to be in the news too much. However, he is a well-known face among the Congress party workers and when Mallikarjun Kharge was the MLA from Gurmitkal seat of Gulbarga from 1972 to 2004, it was Doddamani who used to make the campaign strategy behind the scenes. Congress' poll manager for Gulbarga seat has also confirmed that discussions have been held with local Congress leaders about Doddamani's possible candidature.

Gulbarga seat is considered a stronghold of Congress.
Gulbarga seat is considered a Congress stronghold and has been dominated by Mallikarjun Kharge for a long time. Mallikarjun Kharge had to face defeat for the first time in the last several decades in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Actually, Kharge's path in 2019 was not easy. Congress MLA Umesh Jadhav had resigned from the party and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket and defeated Kharge by 95,452 votes. Apart from Umesh Jadhav, many other top leaders of Gulbarga of Congress like Baburao Chinchansur, AB Malakka Reddy and Malikaya Guttedar had also joined BJP. Gulbarga region has eight assembly seats and Kharge has been a nine-time MLA and twice Lok Sabha MP from Gulbarga region. Currently, six assembly seats in Gulbarga region are held by Congress, one seat is held by BJP and one by JDS.

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