The pro-incumbency wave for PM Narendra Modi and the BJP led NDA in the Lok Sabha polls has seen several titans of Indian politics, hitherto considered invincible, coming crashing down and one of them no doubt is veteran Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge. As the dust settles and the political terrain is redrawn after a saffron sweep of unprecedented proportions, the question many will be asking is whether this signals the end of an era of total dominance by Kharge and his pal through thick and thin late N Dharam Singh over politics in Hyderabad-Karnataka for over four decades? K.N. Reddy analyses the many factors which went into the undoing of one of the senior most politicians of Karnataka and explores if the top Dalit leader can bounce back after suffering an ignominious defeat at the hands of his one-time loyalist, Dr Umesh Jadhav of the BJP
