All you need to know about Siddaramaiah who is set to become Karnataka CM for the second time

After days of deliberations and late-night parlays, Siddaramaiah will take oath as Karnataka's new Chief Minister on May 20. The development comes after Siddaramaiah and state Congress party chief DK Shivakumar were locked in a pitched battle for the CM post after Congress swept 135 seats in the 224-member legislative assembly. Both met party leaders in New Delhi in several rounds of meetings over the past few days and a breakthrough and power-sharing formula was agreed upon in the early hours of Thursday.

• A mass leader with more than four decades of political experience, 75-year-old Siddaramaiah was born into the Kuruba (shepherd) community in Siddaramanahundi, a remote village in Varuna taluk of Mysore district (now Mysuru). He is the second among five siblings and holds a Bachelor of Science degree as well as one in law from Mysore University.


• Known for his oratory skills in his student years, Siddaramaiah was influenced by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia’s brand of socialism. Senior advocate and legendary farmer leader Nanjunda Swamy spotted him when he was practising as a lawyer in the district court and asked him to give politics a shot.


• Siddaramaiah first contested elections on a Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysore. His surprise win saw him becoming a member of the Karnataka legislative assembly in 1983. Later, he joined the ruling Janata Party. He later became minister of state for sericulture.


• He was the first chairman of Kannada Kavalu Samiti, a watchdog committee that had the mandate to supervise the implementation of Kannada as an official language formed during Ramakrishna Hegde’s chief ministership.


• In 2004, the Congress and JDS formed a coalition government, with Siddaramaiah (then in JDS) named deputy chief minister. He also served as JDS state party president from 1999 to 2004. In 2006, Siddaramaiah joined the Congress after being expelled by the JDS following differences with party supremo HD Deve Gowda.


• Considered the architect of Karnataka's Ahinda, an acronym for the Kannada words Alpasankhyataru (minorities), Hindulidavaru (backward classes) and Dalitaru (Dalits). This term was first coined by D Devraj Urs, the state’s first backward-class leader. Siddaramaiah used Ahinda to consolidate his support across diverse communities in a state dominated by Lingayats, Muslims and Vokkaligas, and positioned himself as a mass leader.


• Before the 2013 polls, he led a march to Ballari, challenging Reddy brothers—Gali Janardhana Reddy and G Somashekara Reddy—who were accused in a major mining scam.


• In 2013, he became the CM, edging out M Mallikarjun Kharge, who is now the AICC president and the then Union labour and employment minister. Siddaramaiah is the third Karnataka CM after S Nijalingappa and Devaraj Urs to complete a full term in office. He also has a record of presenting 13 state budgets as finance minister.


• During his CM stint (2013-2018), he implemented welfare measures such as providing Anna Bhagya (free rice scheme), Ksheera Bhagya (free milk), setting up Indira canteens, etc.


• His government also took the controversial decision of recommending religious minority status to Lingayats and Veerashaivas ahead of the 2018 assembly polls, a move considered to be one of the reasons for his party losing that election. His decision to celebrate 'Tipu Jayanti' was also criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).


• He’s also been one of the most vociferous critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP/Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on various issues. He claims to be not anti-Hindu, but rather anti-Hindutva.


• In the 2018 polls, he contested from Badami and Chamundeshwari constituencies. He won from Badami by a narrow margin of 1,696 votes. Despite being the then sitting CM, he lost the 2018 polls in Chamundeshwari in Mysuru to JDS leader GT Devegowda by 36,042 votes. In that election, even after implementing populist Ksheera Bhagya and Anna Bhagya schemes, the Congress was defeated, with its seat tally falling from 125 to 78.


• In 2018, he was forced to offer the CM post to HD Kumaraswamy, whom he once opposed, even though JDS finished a poor third with 37 seats. The uneasy Congress-JDS coalition which was formed due to the fractured mandate eventually collapsed. The BJP toppled the government through 'Operation Kamala' and then formed a government with BS Yediyurappa as CM.


• In the 2023 assembly polls, he expressed interest in contesting from Kolar in addition to Varuna. However, the Congress high command allowed him to contest only from Varuna, where he won by more than 46,000 votes. His son Yathindra, who was the Varuna MLA, had to vacate his seat for him.


• During the run-up to the 2023 polls, Siddaramaiah said that it will be his last election.