Kharge joined national politics when he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Gulbarga, Karnataka, serving from 2009 to 2019.

[1] Under his presidency, the Congress gained 99 seats in the 2024 Indian general election, forming the official opposition for the first time since 2014.

[5] In 1948, Kharge lost his mother and sister in a fire set off by the Razakars of the Nizam of Hyderabad, while he himself had a narrow escape at the age of 7.

[13] In the 2019 general elections, Kharge contested from the same parliamentary seat, however this time he lost to Umesh G. Jadhav from the BJP with a margin of 95,452 votes.

[12] On 12 June 2020 Kharge was elected (unopposed) to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, at the age of 78 years.

[15] Kharge notably has been appointed as an observer by the INC for multiple states in the past, including Assam in 2014, Punjab in 2021, and Rajasthan in 2022.

[16] He has been criticized for his alleged inability to resolve internal party issues in these three states and therefore causing the loss in Assam and Punjab, and public embarrassment in Rajasthan.

[25] Kharge's name was proposed as the prime ministerial candidate of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance for the 2024 general election.