Bengaluru, June 5 -- In a move signalling Karnataka's growing importance in the Congress party's national power structure, the party on Friday nominated its president Mallikarjun Kharge for a Rajya Sabha seat from the state while fielding key organisational figures and strategists for the June 18 biennial elections to the Upper House.
The candidature of Kharge from Karnataka comes at a politically sensitive time for the Congress, which is battling factional turbulence in its major southern stronghold after recent cabinet-level discontent surfaced in Bengaluru. By choosing Karnataka for its national president, the party appears keen to reinforce the state's centrality to its political calculations ahead of crucial electoral battles.
The Co...