Siddaramaiah: A pro-poor leader who rose from humble beginnings to become second-time chief minister of Karnataka

Siddaramaiah, 75, hails from a very humble background.

Finally, the Congress high command has chosen Siddaramaiah over DK Shivakumar for the coveted chief minister post in Karnataka. The reasons are several. But one thing is sure. The party must have an experienced, untainted leader such as Siddaramaiah to hold the reins of administration at this juncture to ensure a stable and pro-poor government.

Siddaramaiah, 75, hails from a very humble background. He belongs to the Kuruba (shepherd) community, a backward class in Karnataka. He is a native of Siddaramana Hundi, a nondescript village in the Varuna assembly constituency in Mysuru district. It was a struggle for him to get even an elementary education because of his weak financial background. His schooling in Kannada began when he was 10 years old. But he fought against all the odds to get degrees in science and law from the University of Mysuru. He taught law and also practised law for a short period while in Mysuru.

Personal life

Siddaramaiah has the image of an atheist. But according to him, he is spiritual. He is vocal against superstition. Leftist writers align with him. He is married to Parvati, a homemaker, who has been off the media radar so far. She maintains such a low profile that she did not even attend the swearing-in ceremony of her husband as chief minister in 2013. The couple lost their first son, Rakesh, in 2016. The second son, Dr Yathindra, is unmarried and a medical doctor turned politician. He became an MLA from Varuna in 2018. In 2023, he made way for his father to contest. Siddaramaiah is now nurturing the ambition of bringing his grandson into politics.

Siddaramaiah’s love for Kannada, local culture, and food, especially non-vegetarian food, is well known. His dress code is a white dhoti, shirt, and angavastra (stole). Through his rustic mannerisms, aggressiveness, and witty replies, he has earned admirers, mostly in rural Karnataka. He was the first among the Congress leaders to openly criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his style of governance.

Political journey

Siddaramaiah has a rich political experience. He has become an MLA for the ninth time. He had thrice contested the assembly elections unsuccessfully. Similarly, luck was not on his side when he contested an MP election. His political sojourn began as a member of the Mysuru taluk board in 1978. He was synonymous with the Janata Parivar under its different avatars for 23 years, since 1983. He had closely worked with the late chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde and Janata Dal (S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda. But he is always candid when it comes to complimenting Hegde but not Gowda. Becoming the JD (S) state president was not sufficient for him. He was twice deputy chief minister.

Siddaramaiah believes that Deve Gowda wantonly denied him the post of chief minister in 2004 when the JD(S) had a truck with the Congress to come to power. Since then, he has begun the movement called AHINDA, a Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits. The credit for coming up with the terminology goes to backward-class leader Devaraj Urs. He openly challenged the hegemony of Deve Gowda while in the party. In 2006, he took a shortcut to further his political career by joining the Congress Party.

Later, he crafted a well-deserved space for himself while many seniors of dominant castes in Congress went into oblivion for various reasons. In 2008, he was upset with Congress when he lost the leader of the opposition post in the legislative assembly to Mallikarjun Kharge. At that time, he had shown signs of rebelling against the Congress.

CM stint

Siddaramaiah, who was politically ambitious, never served as president of the Pradesh Congress Committee. Still, he could become the chief minister in 2013, with the then KPCC president, G Parameshwara, losing the MLA battle while bringing the party to power. The newcomer Siddaramaiah, without hassles, occupied the top post and went on to form a stable government. He launched many pro-poor programmes, such as Anna Bhagya, Shaadi Bhagya and Kshreera Bhagya schemes. He became dearer to the urban poor when he opened Indira mobile food canteens. He is known for his populist schemes for the poor rather than rolling out the red carpet for industry captains. He has the credit of presenting 13 state budgets, and all are tilted towards the poor.

He strongly believes that his efforts to consolidate AHINDA votes, nearly 50 percent of the total voting population, through an extensive poll campaign helped the party come to power in 2023. Siddaramaiah has also said that he would retire from electoral politics after the current term, and hence he should be made chief minister.