DK Shivakumar At 100 Days: A Hands-On CM Navigating Political Storms & Policy U-Turns

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who took over the reins from Siddaramiah, has completed 100 days and his government has made a decision on `Vande Matharam', saying that only the first two paragraphs would be sung during government functions.

However, the government order says that whenever there are central leaders or the governor is present in the function, six stanzas of the Vande Mataram would be recited.

Meanwhile, there have been multiple challenges for the incumbent during these 100 days, of which he has managed to overcome a few. However, the government had to slow down on some issues and also make U-turn in a couple of issues too.

The best compliment he received on the eve was from a sitting High Court judge, who appreciated the Chief Minister's surprise visit to Agriculture Produces Marketing Cooperative (APMC) and taking stock of the situation in person.

On Wednesday early morning, Shivakumar made a surprise visit to APMC in Bengaluru. He sat on onion sacks, discussed the problems of farmers growing onion, potato and garlic. Then, he heard the problems of the laborers in the market and also spoke to the traders and their association. He just entered the canteen within the APMC and had breakfast prepared in the canteen for labourers and farmers. When he saw some child labourers employed around, he directed the local police to initiate action.

The issue was picked up in the Karnataka High court during a routine hearing and Justice Srishananda of Karnataka High Court referred to the Chief Minister's visit to the APMC. ``They can say it is a political gimmick, but it is a good move. The CM has realised that most of the shops in APMC are sub-leased to third parties and even the labourers are not getting proper payment. He has asked the officials to initiate action,'' Justice Srishananda pointed out.

However, the Chief Minister is facing multiple problems. In the first place, though he had to wait for two months before he could expand his cabinet, he could not have a complete cabinet. HIs predecessor was unhappy with a couple of candidates, which left the cabinet without a woman representative.

Just 24 days after getting inducted into the cabinet, Minister B Nagendra had to quit as his name was prominently figured in the ₹ 186 crore Valmiki Backwardclass Development Board scam. The Siddaramaiah camp in the Congress is a divided house with most of his loyal followers like Zameer Ahamed Khan, Satish Jarkiholi and Dr H C Mahadevappa maintaining a distance from Siddaramaiah. Now, apart from the administration, there are a lot of things Shivakumar has to do to keep the flocks together.

During the 100 days, Shivakumar had to slow down land acquisition for Bidadi Township project in the outskirts of Bengaluru city. The land owners, mostly farmers, are divided on party lines and are resisting land acquisition.

The government also faced a major embarrassment with respect to the Karnataka Parks (Preservation) Act 2026, which the government was forced to withdraw just a week after passing it in the Assembly. The bill allowed use of 5% of parks for developmental activities. The bill was seen as just to pave the way for ambitious tunnel road project in Bengaluru, which would go under Lalbagh, damaging the heritage 3 million old rock.