But he relented only after the party leaders made a verbal promise: that his day to the top job will come after Siddaramaiah completes half of the five-year term. The 64-year-old waited with patience, which showed signs of giving way after Siddaramaiah completed the half-way mark in November 2025. But he persevered, with his faith in the high command intact.
His claim to his ‘wage’ – the CM post – has been the series of electoral wins he delivered as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and even before that.
An eight-time MLA – from Kanakapura since 2008, and previously from the now-dissolved Sathanur seat – the Congress leader, widely known as ‘DK’, has established himself as the party’s go-to man during elections or political crises. In the assembly bypolls in the past three years, Congress under his leadership won one after the other, constantly adding to its tally. Even before he became the KPCC chief in 2020, he was credited with several of the party’s electoral victories, including those of VS Ugrappa from Ballari in a Lok Sabha byelection in November 2018 and his brother DK Suresh from Bengaluru Rural in the 2019 general elections.
A post-graduate in political science, Shivakumar had been involved with several activities including running educational institutions as well as granite and real estate businesses. He always prided himself as a loyal Congressman and has been through the party’s ups and downs. He never chased opportunities outside of the party, stood by the Gandhis and firmly turned down offers from rival parties.
Shivakumar spent about 50 days in Delhi’s Tihar jail in 2019 in a case of alleged money-laundering. He has often said he landed in jail only because he chose to stay with Congress and rejected offers to join BJP.
Shivakumar belongs to the Vokkaligas, the second largest community in Karnataka. In the run up to the assembly polls, he appealed to the community voters to vote for Congress to help him become the CM. He was suggesting that no Vokkaliga from Congress became the CM after SM Krishna in 1999.In August 2017, Shivakumar made national headlines after he hosted a group of Gujarat Congress MLAs at a resort in Bengaluru to prevent cross voting in the Rajya Sabha elections in which AICC leader Ahmed Patel was a candidate.
Around the same time, he faced a series of income tax raids, which reportedly unearthed crores of undeclared income.
In the last three decades, DK has grown from being a rude politician to a suave leader to a smart trouble-shooter. Known for his leadership skills and deep pockets, Congress relied on him to helm political campaigns.
