All our efforts went in vain: Mallikarjun Kharge on Karnataka Chief Minister snub

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said he was not given his due by the party high command after the 1999 Karnataka Assembly polls, when SM Krishna was chosen for the state's top post, despite joining the party four months ago.

Suggesting that his hopes of rising to the top office in the state suffered a setback, Kharge said he worked tirelessly as the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader for five years, but all his efforts went in vain.

"I ]became the CLP leader and worked hard to bring the party to power. Eventually, our government did come to power, but SM Krishna, who had joined the party just four months earlier at the time, became the chief minister," the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said at an event in Vijayapura.

"All our efforts felt like they went in vain. I had worked tirelessly for five years. He (Krishna) walked in just four months prior and became chief minister," he added.

The Congress veteran maintained that there have been many such instances, but it would not be appropriate to talk about all of them at once.

SM Krishna was the 16th Chief Minister of Karnataka and assumed office in October 1999 after the Congress won 132 of 224 seats in the Assembly polls.

Kharge served as a minister in the Cabinet of SM Krishna and succeeding Congress chief ministers, until he contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and was appointed as the Union Minister for Labour and Employment. He also served as the Union Minister for Railways and Social Justice and Empowerment for nearly a year before.

KHARGE AS CONGRESS PRESIDENT

Kharge became the Congress president after he defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a landslide victory in 2022.

Kharge emerged as the clear winner with 7,987 votes, while Tharoor managed to secure 1,072 in his favour, underlining the fact that he had strong backing from the party high command and supporters. Over 9,000 Congress delegates across India voted to choose their party chief on October 17.

Following his victory, Kharge became the first non-Gandhi family party chief in almost 24 years.

During his tenure as the Congress national president, the party won 99 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a nearly 50-seat rise as compared to the 2019 polls.

However, the party lost key Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Maharashtra.

- Ends