Kalaburagi, a reserved Lok Sabha constituency, has become the most talked-about seat in Karnataka and one of the hottest in the country amid the ongoing elections. It was seen as a bastion of the Congress for years, but after the party’s veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election from this seat, the political arithmetic changed. This time Kalaburagi, or Gulbarga, is again under the spotlight because it is not Congress president Kharge but his son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani in the fray. He will be taking on Bharatiya Janata Party’s Umesh G Jadhav.
Kalaburagi is Kharge’s home turf and he has won 14 out of 17 elections from this district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also started his campaigning in Karnataka from Kalaburagi this time unlike in 2019, emphasising the importance of this north Karnataka seat.
Congress candidate Radhakrishna Doddamani told News18, “I am one hundred per cent confident that I will win this seat back and I am all set to carry forward the legacy of Mallikarjun Kharge. The party workers are all enthusiastically working too.”
60-year-old Doddamani is a businessman, educationist, and someone who has worked for the Congress on the ground for decades, especially in Kalaburagi for Mallikarjun Kharge. This is the first time that he will be facing an election.
He also attacked incumbent BJP MP Umesh Jadhav who has been nominated again.
Doddamani said, “People are speaking about his failures. As an MP, he has done nothing great and brought nothing great for the people of Kalaburagi. If the people of Kalaburagi provide me an opportunity to serve them then I want to focus on the development works as Kalaburagi has a long way to go there.”
On being asked whether he was forced to enter the fray because Mallikarjun Kharge lost in 2019 and wasn’t keen on trying again, Doddamani denied this. “No, it is not true. He has a responsibility to take care of the whole party. And he had no time for it; so he had all the right to say no,” he said.
The Congress president’s son Priyank Kharge, who is a Karnataka cabinet minister, is spending a significant amount of time in Kalaburagi to campaign for his brother-in-law and party. Speaking to News18, Priyank said, “After being in public life for 50 years, Mallikarjun Kharge had the right to refuse. He has a bigger responsibility to keep the INDIA bloc together and so Radhakrishna Doddamani was the choice of the party. He was working for the party in the shadows for 30 years and someone who knows the party’s workings, leaders, and public well in Kalaburagi.”
When asked why Kalaburagi is still facing challenges when it comes to development, even though the people gave repeated opportunities to Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyank said there was historical backwardness in this area. “We got independence one year later than the rest of India. We were not part of Karnataka until recently. We were under the Nizam of Hyderabad who didn’t focus on development. We were underdeveloped then. We didn’t have progressive kingdoms like the Mysore kingdom. It is a historical imbalance that had to be set right. We got Article 371J, which was done by Mallikarjun Kharge. BJP knows it all well. LK Advani rejected this Article when he was deputy Prime Minister. Also, the BJP never had a representative in the cabinet from Kalburagi,” he said.
The BJP has been attacking Mallikarjun Kharge over the issue of dynastic politics. Priyank said, “It is funny, but their party leaders should put questions about dynastic politics to their senior leader BS Yediyurappa. The BJP should get a DNA testing done.”
On whether he is confident of the party winning this seat back from the BJP, Priyank Kharge said that one loss doesn’t make it a weak bastion. “PM Modi, Amit Shah, and other BJP leaders dislike Mallikarjun Kharge, so all their energy is focused here. This time not just Kalaburagi but Congress will win all 28 seats,” he said.
Check Lok Sabha Election 2024 Phase 3 Schedule, Key Candidates And Constituencies At News18 Website.
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