From Defeat To Dominance: How DK Shivakumar Rose To Become Karnataka Congress' Most Powerful Leader

Bengaluru: It was 1983 and Karnataka state was heading for a political transformation in the form of first non-Congress government.

One of the Chief Ministerial candidate H D Deve Gowda was contesting from two constituencies. One from his home constituency of Holenarasipura and another from Sathanur constituency, which is now merged with Kanakapura constituency.

No one took his 21-year-old opponent in Sathanur. When the results arrived, Deve Gowda himself was surprised to see a kid called D K Shivakumar had lost by a slender margin of 3000 votes.

What happened next made the kid a formidable fighter.

A few days after the results were announced,, police raided his house and filed a case for possessing unlicensed gun. In 1985, during mid-term polls, Congress denied him the ticket and he fought the election as an independent and emerged victorious. Since then, he never looked back and he etched his name as DK in the Karnataka politics.

DK, who was active in Congress politics from the student days, was equally adored and hated. In 1989, he won on Congress ticket and became close to the then senior leader S Bangarappa. Bangarappa had once said that DK would be minister, if he ever became Chief Minister. In next two years, Bangarappa became the Chief Minister and as promised, young Shivakumar became Prisons Minister.

Since then, he never lost an Assembly election. In 1999, when the then KPCC President S M Krishna launched 'Panchajanya' yatra in Karnataka, he had two leaders by his sides. One was H K Patil and another was DK.

Despite presence of senior leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge and M Y Ghorpde, D K went on to become most powerful minister. However, his relationship with H K Patil deteriorated. Meanwhile, tall Vokkaliga leader in Karnataka H D Deve Gowda was watching DK's growth as a parallel leader. When Gowda contested for by-elections from Kanakapura Parliamentary Constituency, DK challenged him. In a fiercely battle, DK lost again by 50000 votes. The rivalry between the two Vokkaliga leaders reached the peak.

In 2004, when JD(S) formed a coalition government with Congress, Deve Gowda ensured that D K did not enter ministry. DK just toed the party lines and remained silent. In 2013, when Congress came to power, he supported Siddaramaiah over Kharge. In 2018, during the short coalition government between Congress and JD(S), as per party's directions, DK worked along with H D Kumaraswamy. But, the governing did not last long.

In 2023, DK declared his desire to be the Chief minister, but Siddaramaiah was a tough but to crack. While DK had support of Soniya Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Siddaramaiah clung tightly to Rahul Gandhi. A power sharing formula was brokered between the two and he had to wait extra six months to get his due.