Who is Radhakrishna Doddamani? Why is Congress fielding Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law from Gulbarga? Explained

The Congress party on Thursday, March 21, released a list of 17 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The list also included Radhakrishna Doddamani, son-in-law of the party's president Mallikarjun Kharge. Doddamani will contest from the Karnataka's Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) constituency.

Doddamani’s nomination gains attention amid growing speculation that Kharge may not contest the Lok Sabha elections 2024. The Congress president had won from the Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) constituency in 2009 and 2014. However, he lost in 2019 to BJP's Umesh Jadhav by a margin of over 95,000 votes.

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Jadhav, a former Congress MLA, switched to the BJP to contest from Gulbarga. He was not the only one. A number of seasoned Congress leaders from the region, including Malikayya Guttedar, Baburao Chinchansur and A B Malaka Reddy quit the Congress and joined the BJP that year. There decision was reportedly influenced by the dominance of Kharge and his son in the region.

Priyank Kharge, senior Kharge's son, serves as a minister in the Karnataka government, representing the Chittapur Assembly constituency in Gulbarga. 

Before facing first defeat in his decades long political career in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mallikarjun Kharge was known as “Solillada Saradara" (a leader who hasn't faced defeat).

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Newswire PTI reported quoting sources that Priyank Kharge was not interested in contesting from the Gulbarga constituency, so Doddamani was the 81-year-old Congress president’s obvious choice.

"Kharge's hands are full. In addition to managing party affairs at the national level, he has to coordinate with the INDIA bloc partners. Also, his term in the Rajya Sabha is not over yet," the PTI report said, quoting a senior Congress leader.

Who is Radhakrishna Doddamani?

Radhakrishna Doddamani is in the business of education. He is one of the trustees of the Dr. BR Ambedkar Medical College in Bengaluru, as per the official website of the institute.

He is the director of a number of companies including Gravitas Investments, Gravitas Estates, Triple-gem Polysacks and Rk Polysacks, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) data shows.

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The Gulbarga native was initially reluctant to contest but eventually agreed. He has been working behind the scenes to manage and strategise Kharge's electoral campaigns. He will take on Jadhav, who has been fielded again by the saffron party from the constituency for Lok Sabha elections 2024.

(With agency inputs)