Congress veteran and a Gandhi family loyalist Mallikarjun Kharge is all set to be the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a letter to Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu informed him the party’s decision to replace Ghulam Nabi Azad, the outgoing LOP, who retires from the House on February 15.

Kharge, 78, a Dalit stalwart of the Congress, was leader of the party in the 16th Lok Sabha. He was known for vociferous opposition of the Government and as a promoter of sloganeering and disruption — something he always said the BJP mastered in the 14th Lok Sabha under then leaders of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

Kharge’s appointment to the key Rajya Sabha post comes at the cost of Congress deputy leader in the house Anand Sharma, who was long seen as Azad’s natural inheritor. Other main contenders for the coveted post were Digvijay Singh and P Chidambaram.

Sharma and Azad last year fell out of favour of Sonia after they wrote to her demanding overhaul of the party organsation and internal elections.

Kharge is a nine-time Karnataka MLA and two-time Lok Sabha MP. He lost the 2019 LS election from Gulbarga by over 95,000 votes. 

The Congress sent him to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 2020. Kharge was recently lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for constructive debate on national issues, unlike the Lok Sabha.

Kharge would be expected to ensure coordination in Congress’s parliamentary strategy and avoid embarrassing situations as last week’s where the party MPs of the Rajya Sabha were seen debating the issue and those in the Lok Sabha were seen disrupting the proceedings.

Congress leaders privately said the closeness to Gandhis is Kharge’s major asset and the leadership was cut up with Azad for allowing the Rajya Sabha to function last week.