Mallikarjun Kharge, as Congress president, is leading the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha election after back-to-back debacles in 2014 and 2019 in which it got 44 and 52 respectively. Kharge is also the chairperson of the INDIA bloc. He first became an MLA 52 years back in 1972, was a Lok Sabha MP for three consecutive terms from 2009, and entered the Rajya Sabha in 2020.| Frontline