All India Congress Committee President Mallikarjun Kharge is under pressure to ensure victory for his party in the Karnataka assembly elections, especially in Kalaburagi and surrounding areas. This is his first election in his native state after becoming the AICC president. Kharge has also been waiting a long time in his home constituency Kalaburagi to avenge his defeat in the last Lok Sabha elections. He was defeated by BJP candidate Umesh Jadhav by a margin of 95,452 votes. The defeat badly affected the veteran Congress leader coming from the Dalit class. At a time when the BJP is in an experiment mode in Karnataka and is facing allegations of humiliating the Lingayat leadership, Kharge is all set to deal a blow to the saffron party in the Kalyan-Karnataka region, known as the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. Making strategy.
It is a matter of prestige for the Kharge family in the region. His son and former minister Priyank Kharge is contesting from Chittapur reserved constituency in Kalaburagi district. The Congress has managed to woo away Baburao Chinchanasur, an influential leader of the Koli community, who plays a pivotal role in the region, from the BJP. Chinchanasur vowed to defeat the BJP on 20 seats. However, he met with an accident and is campaigning from the hospital. Mallikarjun Kharge is leading the attack from the front, targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At a public rally, Kharge compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a poisonous snake and warned people not to chew the bait given by him, claiming they would die. The statement sparked controversy and became national news.
Later, Kharge retracted his statement and said that he meant to target the ideology that PM Modi represents and has no personal enmity with him. Recently, BJP had won the Kalburgi Municipal Corporation. The saffron party captured the posts independently for the first time in history and came to power there after 12 years. Modi referred to the victory and slammed Kharge during a speech at a public rally. Political analyst b. Samiullah told IANS that it remains to be seen how Kharge will take on Modi in the upcoming assembly elections in his home state. “If he manages to win a significant number of seats for his party, it will be a feather in his cap. If he loses, many questions will arise about his leadership.”
Samiullah said that if the Congress is defeated in the elections, it will become primarily a North Indian party in terms of governance. Karnataka is the link of South India for the party. That’s why Congress has come to the state with an aggressive and forceful strategy. AICC is actively carrying out the mission. He said that Kharge knows this and is making all efforts. Senior journalist RR Manoor from Kalaburagi told IANS that Kharge has a lot of influence in the region. He has maintained a clean image for five decades and there is not a single allegation of corruption against him. He has held powerful positions in the state and central governments. His clean politics should be recognized by the young generation and the number of young voters is high. The selection of Congress candidates has been done very carefully. However, voters are still undecided, he claimed.