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Crisis manager to CM-designate: How DK Shivakumar rose to the helm in Karnataka
DK Shivakumar, appointed Karnataka's next chief minister, is recognised for his crisis management skills, political organisation, and loyalty to Congress.
In 2018, Doddalahalli Kempegowda Shivakumar, showed his crisis management skills when he moved the Congress legislators to a resort in a bid to save the fragile JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy-led alliance government. Though the government fell, DK Shivakumar emerged as Congress’s foremost crisis manager.
‘My loyalty has been proved’
A year later, after emerging from Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where he spent 50 days following his arrest in a money laundering case linked to tax investigations, Shivakumar stood before supporters, visibly emotional, and declared: “My loyalty has been proved.” After his release, he repeatedly said he was sent to jail for protecting the party.
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Congress’s go-to troubleshooter across states
Since then, the party has sent him across states to manage crisis. In February 2024, he was sent to Himachal Pradesh to prevent fall of Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government after six Congress MLAs voted against the party in nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who lost the Rajya Sabha poll. Shivakumar was the party’s special observer for recently concluded Assam assembly polls as well as 2023 Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.
Siddaramaiah names Shivakumar as successor
On Thursday, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah declared Shivakumar would be the next chief minister at a breakfast meeting with his cabinet colleagues before resigning. Unlike Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar’s journey to the chief minister’s office has been through the party organisation and gaining confidence of the party high command. For Siddaramaiah, it was through ideological positioning and building a vote base of backwards.
“DK’s rise shows that the party has rewarded him for his organisational and crisis management skills,” a senior Karnataka Congress leader said, adding that Shivakumar’s skills were not only used in Karnataka but across states. “The real test to emerge as a mass leader will start now,” the leader said.
ALSO READ | Not interested in national politics, says Siddaramaiah after resigning as Karnataka CM
Early political beginnings
Born in Kanakapura, Shivakumar entered electoral politics through Congress in the old Mysuru region before winning his first assembly election from Sathanur in 1989. Over successive elections, he consolidated his standing in the Vokkaliga (his caste) belt of southern Karnataka while steadily expanding his role inside the party machinery.
His move to Bengaluru for higher studies became an important turning point in his political life. Shivakumar studied at National College in Basavanagudi, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and became active in the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). “Even then, he was an intensely organisational person, more interested in building personal and political networks, than public oratory,” said a leader associated with him since NSUI days.
His rise within Karnataka Congress politics coincided with the rise of former chief minister SM Krishna, the party’s prominent Vokkaliga leader. Shivakumar has publicly acknowledged Krishna’s role in shaping his early political career. Krishna later joined the BJP.
Partnership and rivalry with Siddaramaiah
Shivakumar’s political relationship with Siddaramaiah came to define the Congress’s internal structure in the southern state over the last decade. The two leaders represented different centres of influence within the organisation — Siddaramaiah drawing support from backward class mobilisation and welfare politics while Shivakumar from organisational control and Vokkaliga networks in southern Karnataka.
Architect of Congress’s 2023 Karnataka victory
Party leaders credited Shivakumar for the 2023 assembly polls win, saying he rebuilt booth level structures, strengthening local coordination and maintaining close engagement with party workers across districts. As a reward, Shivakumar was appointed as deputy chief minister and retained as Karnataka Congress president, a rare dual role for a leader.
Shivakumar married Usha Shivakumar in 1993. The couple have three children — daughters Aishwarya and Aabharana, and son Akash. His elder daughter Aishwarya is married to Amartya Hegde, son of late Café Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha and grandson of SM Krishna. His younger brother, DK Suresh is also a Congress politician and previously served as a member of Parliament from the Bengaluru Rural constituency.
