Mallikarjun Kharge birthday: All you need to know about the Congress President

Mallikarjun Kharge. File Pic

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will be celebrating his 81st birthday on July 21. The Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, Kharge has held important posts in Union Government.

Born in Varawatti, Bidar district, Kharge has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Government College in Kalaburagi and later got a law degree from Seth Shankarlal Lahoti Law College. He started his legal practice as a junior in Justice Shivaraj Patil's office and fought cases for labour unions early in his legal career.

Veteran party leader Mallikarjun Kharge was elected president of the Congress Party in October 2022, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in two decades. Kharge, who defeated Shashi Tharoor in the election, is the sixth president in the party's 138-year-old history.

A leader who has risen from the grassroots, Kharge belongs to the Dalit community and will be the second leader from Karnataka to hold the top party post after S Nijalingappa became the Congress president in 1968.

In over five decades of experience in active politics, Kharge has been a union minister, Congress leader in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and has held several portfolios in Karnataka where he was MLA nine times.

A combative, articulate and accessible politician who is comfortable both in Hindi and English, Kharge has been a strong critic of the BJP-led government.

Born on July 21, 1942, Kharge was active in student politics and was general secretary in 1964-65 of the Students Union in Government Arts and Science College in Gulbarga.

He was vice president of the Students Union Law College, Gulbarga, in 1966-67 and became president of the Gulbarga City Congress Committee in 1969.

Kharge served as MLA in Karnataka nine times between 1972 and 2009 and held several portfolios as minister including education, revenue, rural development and large and medium industry, transport and water resources.

He was president of Karnataka Congress from 2005 to 2008 and also served as Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly from 1996-99 and 2008-09.

He was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014 and elected to Rajya Sabha in 2020. As Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, he raised various issues vociferously.

Kharge was seen as a top contender for the CM post in Karnataka several times but never got the role. Kharge did not protest and continued to work as a disciplined party worker.

Kharge is credited with several initiatives in his ministerial tenures. As Union Minister, he revamped the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, extended insurance and benefits for workers in both organised and unorganised sectors and ESIC hospitals throughout the country were modernized.

As Railway Minister, he gave emphasis to funding projects in the northeastern states in the railway budget and initiated reforms such as the creation of the Rail Tariff Regulatory Authority.