Things you didn't know about Krishna, Moily and Kharge

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Some things you may not know about...

S M Krishna

a) The suave, US-educated lawyer saw politics first-hand first in America - when he was part of John F Kennedy's campaign in student days.

b) He rode a cycle to court on his first day to work as a lawyer.

c) He has a keen interest in fashion designing - so much that Kannada tabloids labelled him 'Tailor Krishna' and speculated that he'd have been a tailor (for want of a Kannada translation for 'designer') if he hadn't taken up politics.

d)'Sullu Helisida Krishna' (The Krishna who got people to tell 'lies') is the headline that ran in some Kannada papers when he allowed, as Assembly speaker, the word 'lie' ('sullu' in Kannada) to be used in the Assembly. Until then, 'lying' or 'lies' were considered 'unparliamentary' and MLAs were asked to use the term 'far from the truth' when they wanted to talk about false claims of the government! Krishna felt that, after all, it meant the same thing.

Veerappa Moily

a) This Yakshagana dancer is known as the architect of the Common Entrance Test in Karnataka - the man who thought of the great Indian 'entrance test' for all engineering and medical colleges.

b) Is a popular writer, credited with writing one of the 3 modern epics in Kannada - Sri Ramayana Mahanveshanam.

c) There are many who can recall having received a letter from him personally - when he was education minister and students/ parents wrote or called him up, he would actually write a letter or answer the call himself!

Mallikarjuna Kharge

a) Das Kadam... Son of a mill employee, Kharge has contested and won ten elections - nine times to the Assembly and once (this time) to the Lok Sabha.

b) His erstwhile Gurmitkal Assembly constituency in backward, neglected Gulbarga district is considered one of the best developed constituencies in Karnataka - the Baramati of Karnataka (or even better) - roads there, they say, are better than those in Bangalore!

c) He's one of the few Congressmen who 'made it' on his own - and surprisingly, unlike other Congressman, has no caste-based or other coterie within the party.

d) When Kharge was Cabinet Minister in the SM Krishna Government (1999 to 2004), and the Cabinet Ministers went to get a darshan and pay obeisance to godman Sai Baba, Kharge was the only one to stay away. A Dalit, he's a close follower of Buddhism and B R Ambedkar's philosophy.