Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Spectacular rise for Kharge

GULBARGA: It’s been a spectacular rise for Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge who was inducted into the Manmohan Singh Cabinet on Thursday.

Mr. Kharge, who twice missed becoming Chief Minister, has held several posts in the party and in Congress governments in the State.

Mr. Kharge narrowly missed becoming Chief Minister twice — first in 1999 and later in 2004. In 1999, he missed out to S.M. Krishna and in 2004 to N. Dharam Singh.

He treated them as temporary setbacks and extended his full support to those who were chosen for the Chief Minister’s post.

Mr. Kharge who has remained unaffected by controversies and scandals, holds the record of winning nine successive Assembly elections — eight from Gurmitkal and the ninth from Chittapur. He contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time from Gulbarga and won.

Mr. Kharge comes from a remote village Warawatti (B) in Bhalki taluk of Bidar district.

He lost his mother when he was seven in the communal riots and the family was forced to flee from their village and settle down in Gulbarga. As per the wishes of the party high command, Mr. Kharge agreed to give up the post of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and contest the parliamentary polls, and now he has been rewarded.

A follower of B.R. Ambedkar and Dalit leader Shyam Sunder, Mr. Kharge had to fight hard to rise up the ladder in this Lingayat-dominated region. Mr. Kharge started off as a student leader at the Government Arts College in Gulbarga and practised law for some time before entering politics.

He represented his college and the university in hockey tournaments.

Mr. Kharge becomes the second MP elected from Gulbarga to be made Union Cabinet Minister after C.M. Stephen, who won a byelection in 1980. Another leader from Gulbarga district and former Chief Minister the late Veerendra Patil, who was elected from Bagalkot in 1980, was a member of the Indira Gandhi Cabinet.

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Spectacular rise for Kharge

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