Bellary, Karnataka: He has been crisscrossing the nation day by day to achieve out to Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates and is exhibiting no indicators of that stress on his 80-year-old self.
It isn’t but 9 am in Bellary however Mallikarjun Kharge is already in his crisp white dhoti kurta, patiently assembly folks whereas ready for his breakfast on the new authorities visitor home. On a desk in entrance of him is an inventory of Congress leaders he might be sharing the stage with later within the day on the large Bharat Jodo Yatra rally on the Bellary Municipal Grounds — a stone’s throw from the visitor home.
On the street outdoors, enthusiastic Congress employees are already assembling with publicity materials in tempos and vehicles forward of the Congress present of power in what was as soon as its bastion till that supremacy was challenged by the Reddy brothers — Janardhan and Sriramulu — of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
“My important message as a presidential candidate is that I’ll focus on the restructuring of the occasion and the organisation. The declaration from the Udaipur Chintan shivir is my manifesto. It’s simply 4 months outdated so you can not actually say it’s outdated. There have been provisions for 6-7 committees, and the declaration was arrived at by delegates and consultants in these fields,” Kharge instructed ThePrint in an unique interview.
He describes himself as a “folks’s candidate”, any person who entered the fray as a result of there was a requirement from PCC delegates. That’s the reason, he says,response has been nice throughout his marketing campaign. “I’m sponsored by PCC delegates that’s the reason the response has been nice,” he provides.
The Rajya Sabha MP has been within the Bharat Jodo Yatra twice earlier than —first when it was flagged off from Kanyakumari on 7 September after which in Tumkur when Congress president Sonia Gandhi briefly joined the rally on 9 October. However the Bellary rally might be his first look at a gathering with prime Congress leaders as the person who’s all however sure to be the subsequent president of the occasion. The mining metropolis is plastered with publicity materials and hoardings welcoming Rahul Gandhi.
‘Yatra will profit Congress in Karnataka’
The response to the yatra, Kharge says, has been “wonderful”. “Lakhs collect to listen to him [Rahul]. The place else do you see such public enthusiasm? Additionally to stroll over 3,500 km shouldn’t be a matter of joke. Right this moment a 3rd of that’s accomplished — about 1,000 km. It’s important to perceive that the aim of the yatra shouldn’t be elections. There are not any elections in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It’s to attach with the folks. It’s a matter of ideology, about defending the Structure. Take a look at what the BJP-RSS is doing to elected governments. It’s about fostering unity within the nation.”
Even whereas asserting that the yatra has no connection to polls, Kharge is acutely aware that elections in his own residence state, Karnataka, by which it is now passing, are due in six months. “It’ll profit Congress naturally in Karnataka however take a look at what the Karnataka authorities is doing. There may be an excessive amount of corruption, no legislation and order. They’re creating issues simply to polarise to win votes,” he says.
‘Younger, good buddy Tharoor’
The Congress veteran has up to now rued the truth that his plea to Shashi Tharoor, his opponent within the polls, to go for consensus as a substitute of an election had not elicited the specified outcomes. However two days to the elections, he isn’t in a temper to speak a lot about Tharoor.
“He’s my younger, good buddy,” he says of the 66-year-old Lok Sabha MP. “It isn’t like that is the US presidential elections or the overall elections. That is our personal pleasant battle, all inside the household,” he says.
A number of days again, pictures of him travelling in a chartered flight had brought on some ripples. Kharge is dismissive. “Everybody makes use of these. Anyway we’ve been largely travelling in industrial flights. It’s solely when a vacation spot shouldn’t be simply reachable that we’ve used chartered flights,” he says.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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