State Congress president D.K. Shivakumar took oath as Karnataka chief minister on Wednesday, capping a chequered political career that saw him emerge as the party’s principal troubleshooter in its fight against the BJP while also spending time in Tihar Jail after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.
Thirteen other legislators, including senior leader G. Parameshwara, were sworn in as ministers in his cabinet. The event was attended by Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Siddaramaiah, who last week resigned as chief minister three years into his term on the high command’s orders to make way for Shivakumar.
DKS, as Shivakumar is popularly known, took oath in the name of the seer Gangadhar Ajja, while holding a copy of the Constitution.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to Shivakumar, Parameshwara and the others at the Lok Bhavan in Bengaluru. Parameshwara is set to be designated as deputy chief minister.
Along with Shivakumar and Parameshwara, the legislators who took oath as ministers were K.H. Muniyappa, K.J. George, M.B. Patil, Ramalinga Reddy, Satish Jarkiholi, Krishna Byregowda, Priyank Kharge, U.T. Khader, Eshwar Khandre, Yathindra Siddaramaiah, Byrathi Suresh and Sharan Prakash Patil.
Barring Khader and Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra, all the others were ministers in the previous government.
Shivakumar, a 64-year-old Vokkaliga strongman, was elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party on May 30 following Siddaramaiah’s resignation as chief minister on May 28. Shivakumar had served as deputy chief minister under Siddaramaiah.
DKS, an eight-term MLA, is a successful businessman too. Shivakumar is one of India’s wealthiest politicians with declared assets worth ₹1,358 crore. His business portfolio spans educational institutions, real estate, infrastructure, quarrying and mining.
In 2019, DKS was arrested by the ED on money-laundering charges and spent 50 days in Tihar, inviting charges of a political witchhunt. Sources said when Sonia Gandhi visited him in jail, he promised her that a Congress government would be sworn in after the 2023 polls in Karnataka.
“DKS is known as the tiger of the erstwhile Sathanur Assembly constituency as he had defeated none other than (former Prime Minister) H.D. Deve Gowda in his electoral debut in 1985. DKS’s strength as a political strategist and also his role as a troubleshooter became evident when he saved then Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s government in 2002,” a Karnataka Congress general secretary recalled.
DKS had sequestered Maharashtra Congress MLAs in a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru and shepherded them back for the trust vote, ensuring Deshmukh cleared the floor test.
In 2017, Shivakumar did an encore when he brought 42 Gujarat Congress MLAs to a resort in Bengaluru to stop them from defecting to the BJP, helping party stalwart and Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel win the Rajya Sabha election.