With Karnataka leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s election as president of the Congress considered a foregone conclusion, the state unit of the party is hoping for good tidings.

Apart from enthusing the Congress worker base in Karnataka, party leaders feel this could provide the healing touch needed by the faction-rid state unit which is often in the news for the wrong reasons.The development also has the potential to swing voters towards the Congress in the seven backward districts of Kalyana Karnataka (formerly Hyderabad Karnataka region) where Kharge, a nine-time MLA from Karnataka, wields significant influence for his role in adoption of Article 371J via an amendment during the UPA government’s time in 2012, empowers the Governor of Karnataka to take steps to develop the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, including the districts of Gulbarga, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal, Yadgir and undivided Bellary.

Kharge was a Union minister at the time. These districts which account for 39 Assembly seats, and in the 2018 polls, the Congress and BJP were evenly poised and the Congress winning 19 constituencies against the BJP’s 16. Subsequent bypolls saw the BJP take two seats from the Congress. The JD(S) won four seats here in the 2018 elections is now gearing up for 2023 polls.

Kharge’s hand on the reins of the party is also expected to finally control the constant bickering between the camps of Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar and Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, both of whom harbour chief ministerial ambitions.