Radhakrishna, Mallikarjun Kharge’s Son-In-Law To Fight Elections From Kharge’s Home Turf
The veteran politician and Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani has been nominated from the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency as the party candidate. Congress, this time, has fielded the sons and daughters of around five state ministers and spouses and kins of a few leaders in Karnataka to run in the 18th Lok Sabha elections.
Radhakrishna, a 60 years old businessman owns one of Bengaluru’s oldest gas agencies. In a recently declared affidavit to the returning officer, the Congress candidate stated assets worth as Rs 29.48 crore and liabilities of Rs 4.18 crore.
Kharge faced electoral defeat from Gulbara in 2019 against BJP’s Umesh Jadhav with 95,000 votes. Since 1952, congress lost this seat only thrice. In a mega rally after the filing of Radhakrishna”s nomination, the AICC President appealed to voters to avenge his 2019 defeat by voting for the Congress. Winning this seat is pertinent for the Kharge family and the national party to maintain their stature in the state.
INC has its MLAs on almost 6 assembly segments in the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency, and the remaining are represented by JD (s) and BJP. In the last general elections, BJP won the seat with 52.14% votes whereas INC observed an 8.27 percent dip in its vote share. The constituency will see elections on May 7, 2024, this year.
Notably, the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat is an SC category parliament seat with a 54.1% literacy rate. According to the 2011 census, SC, ST, and Muslims comprise 25.05%, 3.75%, and 19.15% of the total population in the Gulbarga. During the last elections, the constituency faced one of the lowest voter turnout in the state.
Narendra Modi also started BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign from Kalaburagi, Kharge’s home turf. Targeting the dynastic politics he commented, “The blackness of coal can be removed but corruption can’t be separated from Congress. For these dynasts, corruption is oxygen.” BJP has fielded Umesh Jadhav again to run the upcoming lok sabha elections.
