Mallikarjun Kharge: New Congress President & Gandhi Family Loyalist A 9-Time MLA Who Lost CM Race Thrice

This is perhaps the most important post Kharge will hold in his political career after he missed three opportunities previously to become the chief minister of Karnataka. 

Veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, a long-time loyalist of the Gandhi family, pipped his collegue Shashi Tharoor to become the next president of the grand old party. Kharge, the former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, won the Congress presidential polls by over 6,500 votes to give the party its first non-Gandhi president in 24 years.

Kharge becomes the second Dalit president of the Congress after Jagjivan Ram, who became the chief after the party's split in 1969.

This is perhaps the most important post the octogenarian Dalit leader will hold in his political career after he missed three opportunities previously to become the chief minister of Karnataka. 

So far, Kharge had to be content with posts like leader of the party in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Kharge was first considered for the post of Karnataka chief minister in 1999, but it went to SM Krishna, who is now with the BJP. 

Kharge's name again came up for discussion when the Congress formed the government in Karnataka with the backing of Janata Dal in 2004. However, N Dharam Singh was made the chief minister at the last moment.

In 2013, when Congress wrested back Karnataka from the BJP, Kharge's name again made the rounds. However, the Congress leadership preferred Siddharamaiah for the top post. 

Kharge was born on July 21, 1942, in a Dalit family that had migrated to Karnataka's Gulbarga from Varawatti in erstwhile Hyderabad state's Bidar following communal violence. In the riots, Kharge lost several members of his family, including his mother.

From a very young age, Kharge had a taste for politics and was involved with the students union at the government college in Kalburgi. He completed his law from Seth Shankarlal Lahoti College. 

In his younger days, Kharge was known to be a daring kabaddi player and won several district-level accolades.

At a very young age of 27, Kharge, who specialised in labour laws, became the president of the Kalaburagi Town Congress Committee in 1969. 

When the Congress split in 1978, Kharge joined hands with his political guru Devaraj Urs for a few months. This was the only time in his career that Kharge stayed away from the Congress. 

Since then, Kharge has contested 12 elections and lost only once - in 2019 (when BJP captured 25 out of the 28 Parliament seats in Karnataka). He was elected to the Karnataka assembly nine times consecutively between 1972 and 2008, earning him the sobriquet of "Solilada Sardara" (invincible leader).

He shot into the limelight of national politics after his win to the Lok Sabha from Gulbarga in 2009. He also won from the constituency in 2014.

Following his Lok Sabha win in 2009, Kharge was made the Labour Minister in the UPA-II government. His pro-worker stand and reforms he brought for labourers earned him praise.

Kharge, who has several times declared that he is a follower of Buddha and Ambedkar, has three sons and two daughters. Except for his son Priyank, who is a Congress MLA and a former Karnataka minister, all his other children have kept away from politics.

Kharge, who has the distinction of being the only politician to have led the Opposition in all four houses -- Karnataka Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, now adds another feather to his cap as the president of the Congress.