Raichur District (Kannada: ರಾಯಚೂರು ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ) is an administrative district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in the northeast part of the state and is bounded by Yadgir district in the north, Bijapur and Bagalkot district in the northwest, Koppal district in the west, Bellary district in the south, Mahabubnagar and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh in the east.

The district is bounded by the Krishna River on the north and the Tungabhadra River on the south. The wedge of land between the rivers is known as the Raichur Doab, after the city of Raichur. Bijapur and Gulbarga districts lie to the north across the Krishna River. Bagalkot and Koppal districts lie to the west. Across the Tungabhadra lies Bellary District of Karnataka to the southwest and Mahabubnagar of Andhra Pradesh to the southeast. Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh state lies to the east, and includes the lower portion of the Raichur-584 102.

According to the 2011 census Raichur district has a population of 1,924,773, roughly equal to the nation of Lesotho or the US state of West Virginia. This gives it a ranking of 246th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 228 inhabitants per square kilometre (590 /sq mi) . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 15.27 %. Raichur has a sex ratio of 992 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 60.46 %.

Raichur (Kannada: ರಾಯಚೂರು, rāyachūru), is a city municipality in the district of Raichur in the Indian state of Karnataka. Raichur, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, is the headquarters of Raichur district. It was in the princely state of Mysore during the rule of Tipu Sultan^{[citation needed]}. It is located 409 km from the state capital, Bangalore.

Raichur has a rich history, having been a part of various empires, such as the Bahmanis and Vijayanagara. The city is famous for its imposing Raichur Fort. Here, stone inscriptions have been found in Persian and Arabic which belonged to the bastion of the fort, referring to its construction in 1294. Among the ruins of the immense fort are many irrigation tanks and old temples.

Interesting details of the battle between Sri Krishnadevaraya and Adil Shah are given in The Battle of Raichur.

Raichur is very rich from the epigraphical point of view. It has already yielded hundreds of inscriptions, ranging from the Mauryan period up to the end of the Muslim period. The inscriptions are in a variety of languages such as Sanskrit, Prakrit, Kannada, Arabic, and Persian and belonging to almost all the dynasties that ruled over the Dekkan. The most important places from this point of view are Maski, Koppal, Kuknur, Mudgal and Raichur.

Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa (Kannada: ಬೂಕನಕೆರೆ ಸಿದ್ಧಲಿಂಗಪ್ಪ ಯಡಿಯೂರಪ್ಪ, Born 27 February 1943) is an Indian politician and was the 25th Chief Minister of Karnataka. He is a popular leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and represents Shikaripura in the Karnataka legislative assembly. He became the Chief Minister of Karnataka after the BJP's hisctoric victory in the 2008 Karnataka Assembly election. He is the first person from the BJP to become the Chief Minister of a South Indian state. Yeddyurappa is a popular leader of the dominant Lingayat Community and is regarded as one of the very few leaders in Karnataka with a mass following^{[citation needed]}.

Yeddyurappa was born on 27 February 1943 in a village called Bookanakere in K.R.Pet taluk of Mandya district. His parents were Siddalingappa and Puttathayamma. They belonged to the Lingayat community. He was named after the presiding deity of a Shaivite temple built by the great saint Siddalingeshwara at Yediyur in Tumkur district. His mother died when he was four. He completed his Pre-University College education from PES college, Mandya.

Rahul Gandhi ([ˈraːɦʊl ˈɡaːnd̪ʱiː]; born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. Gandhi is the general-secretary of the Indian National Congress. He is the grandson of Feroze Gandhi and Indira (née Nehru) Gandhi, and fourth-generation scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Rahul Gandhi was born in Delhi on 19 June 1970 as the first of the two children of Rajiv Gandhi, who later became the Prime Minister of India and Sonia Gandhi, who later became President of Indian National Congress, and as the grandson of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He is also the great-grandson of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Priyanka Vadra is his younger sister.

Rahul Gandhi attended St. Columba's School, Delhi before entering The Doon School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), also his father's alma mater, from 1981–83. Meanwhile, his father had joined politics and became the Prime Minister on October 31, 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Due to the security threats faced by Indira Gandhi's family from Sikh extremists, Rahul Gandhi and his sister, Priyanka were home-schooled since then. Rahul Gandhi joined St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 1989 for his undergraduate education but moved to Harvard University after he completed the first year examinations. In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by LTTE during an election rally, he shifted to Rollins College due to security concerns and completed his B.A. in 1994. During this period, he assumed the pseudonym Raul Vinci and his identity was known only to the university officials and security agencies. He further went on to obtain a M.Phil from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1995. After graduation, Rahul Gandhi worked at the Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, in London. In 2002 he was one of the directors of Mumbai-based technology outsourcing firm Backops Services Private Ltd.

Mallikarjun Kharge, (born 21 July 1942) is an Indian politician and currently the Union Minister of Labour and Employment of the Republic of India. He is a member of the 15th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the Gulbarga constituency of Karnataka and is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) political party.

He is a senior Karnataka politician and was the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly prior to contesting the 2009 General Elections. Prior to that he was the President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee during the 2008 Karnataka State Assembly Elections.

He has won elections for a record 10 consecutive times having won the Assembly elections for an unprecedented 9 consecutive times (1972, 1979, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2008) and the recent 2009 General Elections from Gulbarga. Kharge is considered a competent leader with a clean public image and well versed in the dynamics of politics, legislation and administration.

Mallikarjun Kharge was born in Warwatti, Karnataka to Mapanna Kharge and Sabavva. He finished his schooling from Nutan Vidyalaya in Gulbarga and went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Government College, Gulbarga and his Law degree from the Seth Shankarlal Lahoti Law College in Gulbarga. He started his legal practise as a junior in Justice Shivraj Patil's office and fought cases for labour unions early in his legal career.