Meet Karnataka's New CM D K Shivakumar: A Career Politician, Congress' Troubleshooter, Businessman, Educationist, All Rolled Into One
Shivakumar is set to take oath as the Karnataka CM on June 3 at Lok Bhavan in the presence of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.
By Anil Gejji
Published : May 30, 2026 at 5:29 PM IST
|Updated : May 31, 2026 at 7:57 AM IST
Bengaluru: "By birth, I am an agriculturist. By profession, I am a businessman. By choice, I am an educationist. By passion, I am a politician." This is how D K Shivakumar, Karnataka Chief Minister designate, often describes himself.
Though he uses these phrases primarily to counter political opponents targeting him for his enormous wealth, these attributions do indeed hold true in his case.
Beyond politics, Shivakumar has varied business interests, ranging from real estate and quarrying to running shopping malls and reportedly holding a stake in a jewellery brand. He also runs educational institutions. These often place his name on the list of the country's richest politicians. According to his 2023 affidavit to the Election Commission of India, he is worth Rs 1,413 crore, and his assets grow every year.
Leave aside his own description. To fellow politicians, he is a street-smart, trustworthy colleague with enormous raw courage to face any adversity. For the Congress, he is a troubleshooter, resourceful, and a loyal party worker. For the Gandhi family, he is a go-to man of all seasons. Any crisis in Congress in any state, he is called up. For his political opponents, he is a difficult nut to crack.
A career laced with resilience, loyalty and determination
From being a student activist in NSUI, the student wing of the Congress, Shivakumar's story of rising to the Chief Minister’s post is one of resilience, loyalty and determination.
Born in 1962 to Doddalahalli Kempegowda and Gowramma, Shivakumar began as a student leader in the NSUI at the young age of 18. With his unmatched organisational skills and aggressive, never-say-die attitude, Shivakumar quickly drew the attention of Congress leaders, including the then CM Gundurao.
At 23, he got the ticket to contest assembly elections against political heavyweight H. D. Devegowda from the Sathanur constituency, now renamed Kanakapura in Bengaluru South district. By then, he was the Karnataka Youth Congress president. Though he lost the election by a narrow margin, he never looked back in politics from then on. He first entered the Assembly in 1989 and continues to represent the constituency till today.
During his NSUI days, he was reportedly associated with the notorious rowdy-sheeter Kotwal Ramachandra and his gang, an association that continues to haunt Shivakumar even today. His and Kotwal's association is often recalled whenever Shivakumar loses his cool in public. During those days, he also ran cinema halls in Kanakapurai and distributed many films in the Old-Mysuru region.
Shivakumar first served as the prisons minister in the Bangarappa cabinet in 1991. Since then, he was and is part of the cabinet in all the Congress governments except for a brief period in 2013. Energy, water resources, urban development and Bengaluru Development are among the portfolios he managed over the years.
Shivakumar rose to political prominence during S. M. Krishna's tenure (1999 - 2004). With a free hand from Krishna to involve himself in all cross-departmental decisions, Shivakumar became known as the de facto Chief Minister. Whether making important decisions or cornering Krishna's opponents within Congress, Shivakumar acted with impunity and dedication. Shivakumar often referred to Krishna as his political guru.
This bond continued even after Krishna left Congress to join the BJP. In fact, it was further cemented when Shivakumar's daughter, Aishwarya, married Amartya, Krishna's grandson and son of Cafe Coffee Day founder, Siddhartha Hegde. Aishwarya manages his educational institutes. His other daughter, Abharana, is away from the media glare. His son Akash is pursuing a law degree. "I pushed my son into a law degree as I wanted someone in the family to deal with my legal cases," Shivakumar once said in a TV interview.
In his personal life, Shivakumar is deeply religious and believes in astrology. He is an ardent devotee of Ajjayya (Karivrushabha Deshikendra Shivayogishwara Swami) of the Nonavinakere Mutt in Tumukuru district. He has often credited the mutt as his source of strength. In the last year, he has often been seen performing pujas, homas and visiting temples across the country. He completed his undergraduate degree after becoming the minister. He completed postgraduate studies in 2006. He has also developed a penchant for Sanskrit over the past few years and frequently laces his speeches with Sanskrit shlokas.
Lately, he is also known for his one-liners and punchlines. "More work, more mistakes. No work, no mistakes. More stronger, more enemies. No strong, no enemies," he says, suggesting his growing number of enemies implies he is strong.
Shivakumar and crisis management
Over the years, Shivakumar has grown in the Congress ranks as a trouble-shooter and crisis manager. Although the Gandhis knew Shivakumar from Rajiv Gandhi's time, he became close to the Congress first family in 2002 when he successfully safeguarded Maharashtra Congress MLAs secretly lodged in a Bengaluru resort, saving the Vilas Rao Deshmukh-led Congress government from crisis.
His bond with the Gandhi family became deeper when he safeguarded the Congress MPs in a resort in Bengaluru, withstanding the BJP’s efforts to poach them during the 2017 Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections. Since Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary, Ahmed Patel, was the candidate in the election, Shivakumar’s role assumed significance.
Shivakumar later claimed some people threatened to ruin his political career if he did not let go of some MPs. "But I didn't care. I had given a word to Sonia Gandhi, and I had to fulfill it," Shivakumar revealed later.
Shivakumar believes there is a direct link between the I-T raids and the ED cases and his role in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections. "I was put behind bars because of this. When I was in jail, some people approached me and told me that all cases would be withdrawn if I joined the BJP. But I told them that I am a born Congressman and I will die as a Congressman," he said.
It is this loyalty that made Sonia Gandhi visit Shivakumar when he was lodged in Tihar jail. Probably, he is the only Congress leader among those jailed in recent years whom Sonia met in jail. Even during the ED interrogation of Rahul Gandhi, Shivakumar and his brother D. K. Suresh managed a crowd, mostly from Bengaluru, outside the ED office in Delhi to provide moral support for Rahul.
Since then, Shivakumar has been the party's primary troubleshooter. For any problem, anywhere in Congress, he gets a call from Delhi.
Shivakumar versus Deve Gowda family
The arch rivalry between Shivakumar and the H D Deve Gowda family is well known in Karnataka. Despite the Gowda family being the first choice of Vokkaligas, Shivakumar has mounted a political challenge to them for years. He lost some elections to the Gowda family but exacted revenge in as many elections.
The latest contest in this long rivalry was the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Gowda’s son-in-law, Dr C. N. Manjunath, a noted cardiologist, defeated Shivakumar’s brother D. K. Suresh in the Bengaluru Rural constituency. Shivakumar took the revenge by ensuring the defeat of Nikhil, son of Kumaraswamy, in the byelection to the Channapatna assembly seat a year later.
In the 2023 elections, Shivakumar dealt a big blow to the Gowda family by ensuring 5% additional Vokkaliga votes to the Congress and restricting JDS to just 19 seats, the party’s worst performance since its formation in 1999. Hoping that Shivakumar would become the CM, the Vokkaliga community voted for the Congress.
Now that Shivakumar is set to become the CM, the worries of the Gowda family will certainly increase as the possibility of Congress garnering majority Vokkaliga votes in the 2028 elections cannot be ruled out unless something seriously goes wrong against Shivakumar and the Congress in the run-up to the elections.
Unquestionable party loyalty
Shivakumar's loyalty to the Congress and the Gandhi family is unquestionable. When the Congress formed a coalition government with the JDS in 2018, Shivakumar worked so closely with CM Kumaraswamy that people who knew their rivalry wondered how it was even possible.
"My party and my leader (Sonia Gandhi) have told me to ensure the stability of the coalition government to keep the BJP at bay. So I will do everything possible. I guarantee that there will be no problem from my end," is what Shivakumar replied when asked how he managed to forget his rivalry with Kumaraswamy.
Even in the last three years, he never publicly discussed the power-sharing agreement reached with Siddaramaiah to split the Chief Minister post, with each serving 30 months. "From my end, I will not do anything that will hurt my party," is what he used to say. For him, the word of the Gandhi family is sacrosanct.
2020, a turning point in Shivakumar’s political career
A big turning point in Shivakumar’s political career came in 2020 when he was appointed Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President. Soon after taking charge, Shivakumar galvanised the rank and file of the party with a host of programmes. He toured the state and revived the district and taluka units, besides taking all leaders into confidence. He entrusted the responsibility to leaders from the grassroots to the top level to inject a feeling of belonging in them.
He ensured the success of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka and neighbouring Telangana by investing heavily in arrangements. He also took out a padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru to press for early implementation of the Mekedatu drinking water cum balancing reservoir project. He successfully led the party’s PayCM campaign, highlighting corruption in the previous BJP government.
As a result of his efforts and Siddaramaiah’s charisma, the grand-old party managed to win the 2023 elections with a thumping majority, pushing Shivakumar closer to the CM’s post.
When the party high command decided to make Siddaramaiah the CM for the first 30 months, Shivakumar accepted the verdict without any resistance, sending a message that he would not go against the party’s decision. Even when Siddaramaiah continued beyond 30 months, Shivakumar did not make an issue out of it but kept engaging with the party high command, which ultimately decided to fulfil his long-cherished wish.
Now that he is all set to become the CM, will he succeed in his new role as he did in his previous avatars as a farmer, educationist and a businessman? Let us wait and watch.
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