With the demise of the former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Thursday, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Leader in the Lok Sabha, lost his long-time friend. Both the leaders who entered politics in the early 1970s were close friends for almost half a century. On the occasion of Dharam Singh’s 80th birth anniversary celebrations organised in Kalaburagi on December 25 last year, Mr. Kharge fondly recalled how Dharam Singh and he maintained close friendship for a very long time with no disputes and differences cropping up between them.
After Dharam Singh and Mr. Kharge entered the Legislative Assembly as its members for the first time in 1972 by winning from Jevargi and Gurmitkal, respectively, they never looked back. Dharam Singh won eight Assembly elections in a row between 1972 and 2004 and Mr. Kharge won elections for a record 11 times, including nine victories in the Assembly elections between 1972 and 2014. Both the leaders won the Lok Sabha elections twice.
When Dharam Singh was president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr. Kharge was chosen Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly despite stiff competition from many senior Congressmen from South Karnataka. Some close associates of Dharam Singh had even cautioned him of the possibility of Mr. Kharge overtaking him if he was made Opposition Leader. Then Dharam Singh reportedly told his associates that he would be the happiest man to see his friend soaring great heights in politics at the State and national level.
Minister for Medical Education Sharan Prakash Patil holds that the strong and unbroken friendship between the two veteran leaders had laid a solid foundation for the Congress in the Hyderabad Karnataka region.
“Their unshaken friendship is known to the entire State. They never took unilateral decisions but consulted each other. Their individual progress had never come in the way of other’s prospects. They had always been supportive and encouraging of each other’s development in their long political journey. Their friendship and mutual understanding is ideal for everyone,” he said.
Most of the development initiatives of Hyderabad Karnataka region are invariably attributed to the joint efforts of Dharam Singh and Mr. Kharge. Yet, both the leaders often said that their work for the region was not something great, but their duty as people’s representatives. Both the leaders paid more attention to the tasks that could be useful to the people in the long run than those that gave immediate results for a short period.
Their joint efforts resulted in upgrading Gulbarga Post-Graduate Centre of Karnataka University, Dharwad, into a full-fledged and independent Gulbarga University, Gulbarga City Municipal Council into a City Corporation, establishment of the Circuit Bench of the High Court of Karnataka in Kalaburagi, upgrading the Bidar-Srirangapatna State Highway into a National Highway and building a Ring Road around Kalaburagi city, among others. The Constitutional amendment to insert Article 371(J) to provide special status to Hyderabad Karnataka is widely viewed as a monumental achievement of Mr. Kharge with the able assistance of Dharam Singh.
