As Mallikarjun Kharge won an election to become Congress president, a bunch of congratulatory messages on social media were directed at Bollywood actors Malaika Arora and Arjun Kapoor.

People were delighted to discover that the new Congress chief’s first name is a combination of Malaika and Arjun, who are in a relationship. Soon Mallaika-Arjun trended on Twitter.

“Congrats malaika arora n arjun kapoor’s son to becoming the congress president,” a Twitter user posted. The tweet had almost 4000 likes and was retweeted 339 times.

“Mother – Mallika, Father – Arjun , Son – Mallikarjun,” another user tweeted.

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“This is hilarious! Someone from BJP should pick this up!” one person replied.

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Maliikarjun Kharge, 80, is a senior Congress leader who has for several years led the party in the Lok Sabha or the lower house of Parliament. He is the first non-Gandhi in two decades to lead India’s main opposition party. He is seen as a loyalist of the Gandhi family that has headed the Congress for decades,

Kharge won the election for Congress president with almost 85% of the votes, vanquishing Shashi Tharoor, who alleged “extremely serious irregularities” in the election process.

It is not the first time that Kharge’s name has inspired people to make Mallaika-Arjjun jokes.

In 2018, a Twitter user had observed: “If malaika n arjun marries then congress would be happy ….because then news headlines will be full with mallikarjun (kharge).”

Malliaika Arora, (48) and Arjun Kapoor (37), had initially chosen not to disclose their relationship, though rumours abounded. Arjun, who is known for his roles in Bollywood films like ‘Ishaqzaade’ and ‘2 States’, said recently on the talk show Koffee with Karan that he took “baby steps” in going public about the relationship as he wanted to make sure people around them were comfortable with it first.

Malaika was previously married to actor Arbaaz Khan for over a decade. They have a son, Arhaan.

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IndiaToday.in had cited a source in May saying that Arjun and Malaika wanted to get engaged in 2021, but could not do so because of the pandemic.