Bengaluru

After days of deliberation and contemplation, Karnataka’s newly elected government has finally chosen their Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah. Congress party chief in Karnataka DK Shivakumar will be the deputy Chief Minister. The party reached a consensus for government formation shortly after midnight. The swearing-in ceremony of the two leaders will take place in Bengaluru on May 20. 

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Siddaramaiah, the former chief minister had been camping in the national capital since Monday. The two leaders, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar discussed various issues related to Karnataka government formation in a meeting lasting over an hour. Siddaramaiah then travelled to party general KC Venugopal’s residence for another meeting. 

Siddaramaiah: New CM of Karnataka 

Siddaramaiah was born in 1948 into a poor farming community in a remote village of Mysore district. He graduated from Mysore University with a B.Sc. degree and later studied law at the same institution. He also pursued law as a profession for some time. 

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He began his political career in 1983 after contesting the election on a Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket from the Chamundeshwari constituency and entering the 7th Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He won five times from this constituency and faced three defeats. 

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Siddaramaiah was the first Chairman of the Kannada Watchdog Committee (Kannada Kavalu Samiti), which was set up to supervise the implementation of Kannada as an official language. He strived for the enrichment of the Kannada language and culture of the State. He later became the Minister of State for Sericulture and was instrumental in the all-around development of the Sericulture Department and Silk Industry in the State. 

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In 1992, Siddaramaiah was appointed as the secretary general of Janata Dal. In 1994, he became the minister for finance in the Janata Dal government headed by Deve Gowda and later served as the deputy chief minister in 1996. However, he was sacked from the Cabinet in 1999 because of a split between him and the party. He later joined Janata Dal (Secular).

He was again appointed as the deputy chief minister when the Congress and JD(S) formed a coalition government in 2004. In 2005, he was expelled from the JD(S) after differences with HD Deve Gowda. A year later, he joined the Congress party.

In 2008, following the delimitation, Varuna became a constituency and Siddaramaiah represented it till he vacated the seat for his son in the 2018 polls and went back to his old constituency of Chamundeshwari. 

He served five successful years as the CM of Karnataka from 2013 to 2018. He became the first Karnataka CM to serve full five years term in 40 years, and the second in the history of the southern state after Devaraj Urs. He also holds the record of presenting the state budget 13 times as a finance minister in Karnataka. 

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Siddaramaiah married Parvathi and has two sons. His elder son, Rakesh, died in 2016 due to multiple organ failure at 38. His surviving son, Yathindra, contested the 2018 Legislative Assembly elections and won from the seat of Varuna in Mysore, formerly his father’s seat, by over 45,000 votes. 

Siddaramaiah once states that he is an atheist though he has more recently clarified his public stance on the subject, "Word has spread that I am an atheist, who I am not. I am spiritual, I have participated in festivities as a child. I have visited some of the popular pilgrimage centres. But I am definitely against superstition, as I view everything from a scientific point of view.”

What DK Shivakumar said about Siddaramaiah’s CM appointment?

Many sources say that DK Shivakumar’s acceptance of Siddramaiah’s CM role had a big push from Sonia Gandhi. On Sonia Gandhi’s demand, Shivakumar agreed to his appointment as the deputy CM and made the “sacrifice” in the interest of the party. 

DK Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh said the arrangement offered by the Congress leadership has been in the interest of Karnataka, but it has not left them happy.

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"This decision has been taken in the interest of Karnataka and the party... My brother wanted to become Chief Minister, but he didn't become. We are not too happy with this decision," he told NDTV.

Both Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Shivakumar met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Party General Secretary KC Venugopal yesterday, presenting their cases as contenders for the Chief Minister post. 

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