Kharge’s son-in-law emerges as front-runner for Gulbarga seat as Congress chief focuses on national pitch

“Also, he has four more years of his term left in Rajya Sabha,” he said, seeking to confirm reports that Kharge is not in favour of contesting.

His son, Priyank Kharge, who represents the Chittapur Assembly segment and is a minister in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet in Karnataka, is also not interested in entering the race.

A party leader said, “Doddamani, a businessman who also manages educational institutions, seems to be the front runner.”

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Congress chief to take final call

Party sources said the Congress president will take a final call on whether or not to contest the polls in consultation with top leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Kharge will have the final word on whether Doddamani or anyone else would be the candidate from Kalaburagi, as it is his home turf, the sources said.

Doddamani, who was initially reluctant to enter the fray, has been asked to be prepared to be fielded.

Born in Kalaburagi, Doddamani has maintained a low profile; he has always worked actively behind the scenes in managing and strategising for Kharge’s successive electoral campaign. He is said to be popular among party workers and supporters, especially in the Gurmitkal Assembly segment, which Kharge represented consecutively between 1972 and 2004.

Congress’ poll managers in Kalaburagi are said to have discussed Doddamani’s probable candidacy and how to ensure his victory during a recent meeting with party legislators and leaders from the segment.

Kharge was defeated by BJP’s Umesh Jadhav by 95,452 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Popularly known as “Solillada Saradara” (a leader without defeat), that was the first electoral loss in Kharge’s political life spanning several decades.

Ahead of the polls, Jadhav quit Congress MLA and joined the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha election from Kalaburagi.

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The 2019 elections

The 2019 election was considered a tough one for Kharge, a nine-time MLA and two-term Lok Sabha member, as several senior leaders of Congress like Baburao Chinchansur, AB Malaka Reddy, and Malikayya Guttedar, from the region had quit the party and joined the BJP.

These leaders along with Jadhav, who had quit the Congress upset over the “dominance” of Kharge and his son Priyank Kharge (who was then Minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government) in the region, found a common ground and aggressively campaigned against the father-son duo.

Kharge, who was earlier leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, had served as Union Cabinet Minister for Labour and Employment, also Railways and Social Justice and Empowerment in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.

He had also held various portfolios in successive Congress governments that governed the state and was also president of Karnataka Congress and leader of opposition in the state assembly.

Kalaburagi for long had been a bastion of the Congress. Before 2019, it had lost its hold over the constituency only in the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha polls when the Janata Dal and BJP had won the seat, respectively.

Kalaburagi has eight Assembly seats of which Congress currently holds six, and BJP and JD(S) one each.

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