By winning seven out of nine segments in the recently concluded Assembly elections, the Congress has registered a spectacular performance in Kalaburagi district, the home turf of All India Congress Committee (AICC) president M. Mallikarjun Kharge.
As the party high command is still struggling to finalise the Chief Ministerial candidate between Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar, senior partymen who won the elections from Kalaburagi have already started lobbying in the State and national capitals for securing a berth in the new Council of Ministers.
Of the seven newly elected Congress MLAs from the district, four appear to be front runners for Ministerial berths, Priyank Kharge, son of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, B.R. Patil, a long-time associate of Siddaramaiah, Sharan Prakash Patil, a close aide of Mr. Kharge, and Ajay Singh, son of the former Chief Minister late N. Dharam Singh.
Priyank Kharge registered a hat-trick of victories in Chittapur. Priyank Kharge’s performance as the spokesperson of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has caught the attention of the party’s State and national leadership. He was successful in exposing the irregularities of the BJP government with substantial documentary evidence, especially in the Bitcoin and PSI recruitment scams, both inside and outside the House.
BJP, in its desperate bid to get rid of him in the House, made all-out efforts to defeat him in the elections, including sending national leaders like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to Chittapur to campaign in favour of its candidate Manikanth Rathod, a history-sheeter.
He has experience in managing complex things as he was Minister for IT & BT and Tourism in the Siddaramaiah government and Social Welfare Minister in the Janata Dal(S)-Congress coalition government.
His hat-trick of victories, his work as an outspoken KPCC spokesperson and his work against the BJP government, apart from being the son of AICC president, may help him secure a good portfolio in the new Cabinet.
B.R. Patil has been a close associate of Siddaramaiah for the last four decades. They have been good friends since the time of Janata Parivar. He has won Assembly elections four times from Aland. He was also a member of the Legislative Council and served as its Deputy Chairman. Apart from his seniority, his proximity to Siddaramaiah and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and his strong socialistic ideas may help him get a Ministerial berth.
Sharan Prakash Patil has also won Assembly elections four times from Sedam. He is a medical doctor and the blue-eyed boy of Mallikarjun Kharge. He had served as Medical Education Minister in the Siddaramaiah government. In this election, he registered a victory with an impressive margin of 43,561 votes against his BJP rival Rajkumar Patil Telkur. Apart from the strong support of the AICC president, his seniority and knowledge in health and medical education can come in handy when the leadership considers him for a Ministerial post.
Ajay Singh is also a medical doctor. Along with Priyank Kharge, he too registered a hat-trick of victories from the Jewargi segment. He is the son of the former Chief Minister late N. Dharam Singh. He is also one of the strong aspirants for a Ministerial post in the new government. Apart from his late father’s goodwill in the party, his hat-trick of victories, seniority and knowledge in health and medical education may help him in his claim for a Ministerial berth.
