BW Explains: Know More About Congress’ Golden Man Siddaramaiah
Finally the wait is over. On Thursday, as the name of Siddaramaiah was announced for the Chief Minister of Karnataka, all eyes were on this Congress leader who had been the chief minister earlier too. Siddaramaiah, alongwith DK Sivakumar, was the key contender for the post and is also said to be the architect of Congress’ thumping victory in the state.
As the newly appointed Karnataka Chief Minister is slated to take oath on Saturday, 20 May, Let us know more about the man of the hour.
His Background
Siddaramaiah is a member of the Kuruba community, the third largest caste in Karnataka. He has previously led the AHINDA conferences (Kannada abbreviation for minorities, backward classes, and Dalits). He was born in a remote village called Siddaramanahundi in Varuna Hobli near T. Narasipura of Mysore district in a farming family. He was earlier a lawyer by profession before actively joining politics. He is married to Parvathi and has two sons, one of whom has passed away.
The Political Journey
He is a nine-term MLA who won the Varuna constituency by a margin of 46,163 votes last week.
He was elected to the 7th Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1983 after running for office on a Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket from the Chamundeshwari district. As the first president of the Kannada Surveillance Committee (Kannada Kavalu Samiti), which was established to oversee the adoption of Kannada as an official language, he later joined the ruling Janata Party. Siddaramaiah was re-elected from the same constituency in the 1985 mid-term elections and was appointed Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services. He held many positions in Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde's administration, including Sericulture, Animal Husbandry, and Transport, at various times.
A former state unit chief of the JD(S), he was sacked from the party and eventually joined the Congress with his followers in 2006.
The Politics Veteran
Siddaramaiah represented the Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysuru in the Karnataka assembly five times - in 1983 as an Independent, in 1985 on a Janata Party ticket, in 1994 and 2004 for the Janata Dal, and in 2006 for the Congress by a lean margin of 257 votes.
In 2018, he vacated the Varuna seat to his son S Yathindra and contested from Chamundeshwari and Badami. While he lost in Chamundeshwari to JD(S) candidate GT Deve Gowda, he defeated the BJP's B Sriramulu by a narrow margin of 1,996 votes in Badami.
His “Net Worth”
Siddaramaiah has shown family assets worth more than Rs 51 crore and liabilities of more than Rs 23 crore at the time of filing his nomination from Varuna Assembly. According to the affidavit submitted along with the nomination papers, Siddaramaiah and his wife Parvathi together have movable assets worth around Rs 20.84 crore. His liabilities account for Rs 6.84 crore and his wife’s liabilities are shown to be around Rs 16.24 crore.
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