Karnataka: Congress fields Mallikarjun Kharge for Rajya Sabha polls

Bengaluru: Congress on Friday, June 5 decided to field senior party leader and former Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls.

Kharge’s candidature was approved by Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Kharge, a nine-time MLA and two-term MP, who had served as Congress floor leader in the previous Lok Sabha, faced his first electoral loss in his political life spanning several decades against BJP’s Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka, represented by Rajeev Gowda and B K Hariprasad of Congress, Prabhakar Kore of BJP and D Kupendra Reddy of JD(S) will fall vacant on June 25 with their retirement and polls have been scheduled for these seats on June 19. The last date to file nominations is June 9.

Meanwhile BJP is yet to decide on its candidate.