Bengaluru: Radhakrishna Doddamani, a first-time Congress MP from Karnataka, has yet to spend a single rupee from his MPLAD (Members of Parliament Local Area Development) scheme funds since he was elected in 2024, government data shows.
An analysis by ThePrint revealed that Radhakrishna, the MP from Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), is the only one among Karnataka’s 28 MPs who has yet to allocate any money or submit a proposal for any development works from his MPLAD funds. Under the scheme, an MP can recommend works up to Rs 5 crore a year to the district collector for his/her constituency.
Radhakrishna is Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s son-in-law, who replaced him as the candidate from Kalaburagi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. His brother-in-law, Priyank Kharge, is a cabinet minister in Karnataka.
The delay in allocating funds, according to him, was because he was awaiting funds as well as a clear plan to ensure maximum impact. He added that there were demands from various quarters for allocation of funds, but he would prioritise government schools in Kalaburagi district, 637 km from Bengaluru.
The Congress MP said the delay was also due to the commissioning of a comprehensive survey to identify the schools that needed the funds the most.
“I requested our CEO to survey and make a list of all the schools in our district. Wherever it is necessary, it should reach the beneficiaries,” Radhakrishna told ThePrint.
He said that there were schools that had no toilets, and had dilapidated buildings and other problems that needed to be fixed. “Each constituency…we are planning to allot Rs 1 crore and the remaining Rs 2 crore wherever it is necessary.”
In comparison, Radhakrishna’s predecessor, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Umesh Jadhav, had allocated Rs 11.30 crore out of Rs 14.22 crore over five years and recommended 215 works, of which 53 have been completed.
According to the government data, a total of Rs 8,748.68 crore has been allocated as part of MPLAD funds. Of this, Rs 2,777.35 crore was spent for 1,02,733 works. So far, 19,719 of these have been completed.
Also Read: With SC’s Bengaluru civic poll deadline, Karnataka’s Congress govt set to face crucial test
‘Demands high, funds low’
Details accessed by ThePrint show that MPs from Karnataka have spent between Rs 37 lakh and Rs 4.64 crore from their MPLAD funds in the past two years.
Congress MP Rajashekar Hitnal spent Rs 4.64 crore in Koppal in the Kalyana-Karnataka region compared with Rs 66.54 lakh by Sagar Khandre, another first-time MP from Bidar.
Tejasvi Surya, the second-time MP from Bengaluru South, has so far spent Rs 1.31 crore on 106 works, of which six are completed.
Similarly, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has spent Rs 1.16 crore on 112 works, of which 11 are completed. Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, the MP from Bengaluru North, spent Rs 1.91 crore on 67 works, of which five are completed.
Radhakrishna, in contrast, is yet to either recommend any works or approve any funds.
After his first-ever election defeat in 2019, Kharge conceded his home district of Kalaburagi to Umesh Jadhav of the BJP. A year later, Kharge was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Two years later, in October 2022, he took office as the national president of the Congress party.
In 2024, Kharge nominated his son-in-law to replace him in Kalaburagi, from where he had won nine times in the Assembly elections and twice in the parliamentary elections since 2009.
In the 2024 general elections, the Congress managed to win nine seats out of the 28, while the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition bagged 16. Radhakrishna managed to wrest back control of Kalaburagi. But since then, he has maintained a quiet profile.
C.T. Ravi, BJP MLC and former national general secretary of the party, said that Radhakrishna has delivered “zero achievement” in Kalaburagi.
“Despite being an MP for the past one-and-a-half years, Radhakrishna has not spent a single rupee from his MPLADS fund. Not one project has been initiated. And when nothing has even begun, the question of completion doesn’t arise at all…,” Ravi said in a post on X.
The Kalaburagi MP, Shri Radhakrishna, who also happens to be the son-in-law of @INCIndia President @kharge, has delivered a grand “zero achievement” in the development of Kalaburagi.
Despite being an MP for the past one and a half years, Radhakrishna has not spent a single rupee… https://t.co/84BydwECA9
— Ravi C T 🇮🇳 ರವಿ ಸಿ ಟಿ (@CTRavi_BJP) January 14, 2026
He added that under the Kharge family, power matters more than development, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region remains one of the most backward in the country.
Kumar Naik, a former IAS officer-turned-MP, said demand for development works across the parliamentary constituency was high, but there weren’t enough resources. “There are demands for school auditoriums, Samudhaya Bhavans (community halls), and a number of such demands that cannot be budgeted by the state government,” Naik said.
He added that the demands are not specific to any department and sometimes overlap, making it difficult to get approvals.
Data shows that Naik has spent over Rs 87.02 lakh since he took office. He said that it would be easier to allocate funds from the MPLAD scheme since there are limited resources.
“Many a time it is too small an amount to cater to all demands, and it becomes a Herculean task to distribute this with rationale,” he added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Karnataka panel’s fund management advice for govt—merge state & central schemes, no new projects