Mallikarjun Kharge

Mallikarjun Kharge

Mallikarjun Kharge was born into a Dalit family in 1942 in Varawatti, Bhalki Taluk, Bidar district, Karnataka. In 1948, at the age of six, Kharge narrowly escaped a fire ignited by the Razakars of the Nizam of Hyderabad, which tragically claimed the lives of his mother and sister. After completing his education and earning a law degree in Gulbarga, he began his legal career as a junior to the esteemed Shivaraj Patil, advocating for labor unions in his early practice.

He first ran for the Karnataka State Assembly in 1972, securing a win in the Gurmitkal constituency. Following this, he successfully contested and won the Assembly elections eight additional times, holding various ministerial positions throughout his tenure.

Kharge contested the general elections from Gulbarga Parliamentary Constituency in 2009 and 2014 and won both times. In June 2014, he was appointed the Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha.

In the 2019 general elections, Kharge contested from the same Gulbarga  Parliamentary seat but lost to a BJP candidate.

In 2020, Kharge was elected (unopposed) to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, at the age of 78 years.

He was the first INC President not from the Gandhi family in 24 years.

As President of the Indian National Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge has consistently championed social justice and equality. He has declared that Congress remains committed to continuing reservations until “there is casteism”.

Kharge is a polyglot and can speak English, Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Telugu and Marathi. His son Priyank Kharge is an MLA from the Chittapur assembly constituency.