Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is unlikely to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, said the sources. The news led to an unease within the party.
Despite the sentiment of the party members for the president to lead from the front, Mr Kharge said that he needs to take care of the party rather being involved in personal campaign.
Mr Kharge is expected to nominate his son-in-law Radhakrishnan Doddamani from Gulbarga constituency, where his name was an unanimous one in the list of candidates for Karnataka.
The senior Congress leader had won twice from Gulbarga but he was defeated in 2919. Since then, he has been a member in Rajya Sabha, where he has four years left in his tenure.
Priyank Kharge, son of Mallikarjun Kharge is in the cabinet of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. However, he is not willing to take part in the Lok Sabha elections.
Denying his appearance from any single constituency, Mr Kharge said that he does not want to be “confined to one constituency but concentrate across the country”.
However, there is no history of Congress presidents not contesting in elections. This is first time that Congress president is not contesting elections.
Earlier, both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have contested and won.
On the same front, BJP President JP Nadda is also not contesting on any seat in Lok Sabha elections this year. However, earlier party chiefs Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh have fought and won both in 2014 and 2019.
