‘PM Modi is afraid of Mallikarjun Kharge’: Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar

DK Shivakumar said PM Modi was afraid of the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as he started his election campaign from Kharge's home district Kalaburagi.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was afraid of the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as he started his campaign for Lok Sabha elections from Kharge's home district Kalaburagi.

DK Shivakumar. (PTI)

He said that the party is sure to win 20 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka including Kalaburagi.

"PM Modi is afraid of the leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge. Hence he started his election campaign from Karnataka, especially Kalaburagi. Congress will win 20 seats in Karnataka including Kalaburagi parliamentary constituency," Shivakumar told ANI.

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Kalaburagi (Gulbarga Lok Sabha segment) is the home district of Congress chief Kharge, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014. He lost to BJP's Umesh Jadhav in the 2019 general elections.

When asked about the party's second list, the deputy chief minister said that the party's second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka will be announced on March 20.

Already, the Congress has announced candidates for seven seats out of a total of 28 in the state.

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"The Congress election committee meeting will be held on March 19 and the list is likely to be released on March 20," Shivakumar said.

He further said that the guarantee implementation committee members meeting will be held on March 21 at the state, district and taluk levels.

"We are going to assign Lok Sabha election responsibilities to them at the meeting," he told ANI.

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Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats. In 2019, BJP won 25 seats with a vote share of 51.7 per cent while Congress won one seat with a 32.1 per cent vote share. On the other hand, JD(S) too got one seat and South Indian actress Sumalatha Ambareesh and independent MP won the Mandya constituency in Karnataka with the support of the BJP.

The Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka will be held in two phases on April 26 and May 7.

The elections for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held from April 19 to June 1, with counting of votes scheduled for June 4.

Elections to State legislatures of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will also be held in the same period.