Siddaramaiah: Janata Parivar veteran and Congress's best bet in Karnataka polls

Siddaramaiah (he goes by this single name) has come a long way since his days of grazing cattle in a village near Mysore as a young boy. Born on August 12, 1948, he is the leader of the Indian National Congress and Karnataka's incumbent chief minister.

Siddaramaiah's humble background never came in the way of his success. He did not receive formal education during his initial years but went on to become a law graduate from Mysore University. Siddaramaiah was teaching law in Mysore for some time and made his political debut only in 1983 from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysore.

Before joining Congress, Siddaramaiah was part of many Janata Parivar factions. As a member of H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular), he even served as deputy chief minister of Karnataka twice.

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Siddaramaiah's debut in the Karnataka Assembly also came on a Lok Dal ticket, which was a part of the Janata Parivar. He has been winning assembly elections since then from Mysore district except twice, in 1989 and 1999, when he lost.

A private person, Siddaramaiah is always dressed in white kurta and panche (a famous South Indian attire) and carries an angavastra. He belongs to the Kuruba (shepherd) community - the third largest in Karnataka - but always projects himself as the champion of backward classes. He was instrumental in promoting AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) conventions.

Siddaramaiah had a long association with Deve Gowda and held various portfolios as minister in the governments of Janata Dal headed by Ramakrishna Hegde, H D Deve Gowda and J H Patel. Earning his name as a good finance minister, he presented five successive budgets from 1994 and two more as finance minister in the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government in 2004-2006.

But the long partnership ended in 2006 when Siddramaiah was expelled from JD(S). He had accused Deve Gowda of promoting only his family members in the party. Siddaramaiah then joined Congress at a large public meeting in Bengaluru, in Sonia Gandhi's presence.

Siddaramaiah won the Chamundeshwari bypolls held in December that year, by a margin of 257 votes against M Shivabasappa of JD(S), despite a fierce campaign against him by Deve Gowda, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister Yeddyurappa. In the 2008 state assembly elections, he contested from Varuna Constituency and was re-elected for the fifth time.

He and his wife Parvathi had two sons - Rakesh and Yatindra. Rakesh, who helped his father in his political life, died of multi-organ failure in Belgium in 2016. His younger Yatindra is a doctor.

Siddaramaiah has won five times and tasted defeat twice at Chamundeshwari. He was representing Varuna constituency in Mysuru since 2008, which was later allotted to his son Yatindra.