Mallikarjun Kharge gets rousing welcome in Bengaluru

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday reached the city to a grand welcome accorded by party leaders and workers.

This is Kharge’s maiden visit to Bengaluru since he assumed charge as the Congress president.

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress state president D K Shivakumar and party MLAs and office bearers received the newly elected national president at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.

A felicitation ceremony– ‘Sarvodaya Samavesha’ has been organised at the Bengaluru Palace ground today, where AICC general secretary and Karnataka party in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala will also be present.

It will be the grand old party’s show of strength in the poll-bound Karnataka, where the assembly elections are due in less than six months, party sources said.

A Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka and a former union minister, Kharge was elected as the Congress president on October 19 after defeating rival Shashi Tharoor.

80-year-old Kharge, a Gandhi family loyalist, hails from Kalaburagi in Karnataka. He is the first Congress president in the last 24 years from the non-Gandhi family.

He is the second AICC president from Karnataka, the first one being Nijalingappa.

He is also the second Dalit Congress president after Jagjivan Ram.