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Journalism of Courage
Amid speculation about him contesting Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge refuted suggestions of senior party leaders avoiding contesting the polls, stating his willingness to participate if party workers endorse it.
When asked about senior leaders opting out of the poll fray, he said, “It’s wrong that we are backing out. I am 83 years old, you (journalists) retire at 65… So I am 83.”
Talking to media persons on Tuesday, Kharge said, “If given a chance, everyone goes and tells our party workers (that I should fight)…if they say then I will definitely fight. Look, sometimes we are at the back, sometimes we are at the forefront, we also have a list of ten people asking for the same seat.”
Kharge, who won Karnataka’s Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and 2014, suffered his first electoral defeat in five decades of his political career in 2019. Following this, he was shifted to Rajya Sabha where he became Leader of Opposition and eventually the party chief.
Meanwhile, Congress, which released its second list of Candidates for Lok Sabha polls on Wednesday, saw a shift in its action as against popular buzz on Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and Govind Singh Dotasara leading from the front and contesting in this election, the party brass has decided to play safe and placed confidence on younger faces with Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi contesting from Assam’s Jorhat, while Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath been fielded from Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara for the second time. Along with former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot entering the fray from Jalore.
The party had on Friday released the first list of 39 candidates across eight states and one Union Territory for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Former party president Rahul Gandhi was fielded from Kerala’s Wayanad for the second time, while party general secretary KC Venugopal was fielded from the state’s Alappuzha.
