Siddaramaiah (born 3 August 1947),[6] also referred to by his nickname Siddu,[a] is an Indian politician who is serving as the 22nd chief minister of Karnataka from 20 May 2023.[7] He also held that position previously from 2013 to 2018,being only the second person in the history of Karnataka state to hold that office for a full five-year term after D. Devaraj Urs.
Siddaramaiah was born to Siddarame Gowda and Boramma at a remote village called Siddaramanahundi in Varuna Hobli near T. Narasipura of Mysore district in a farming family.[14] He is the fourth among six siblings,and he belongs to the Kuruba Gowda community.[15]
Siddaramaiah was a junior under a well-renowned lawyer,P M Chikkaboraiah,in Mysore and later taught law for some time at Vidyavardhaka Law College[17][18][19] managed by Vidyavardhaka Sangha (VVS),Mysuru.[20]
Personal life
Siddaramaiah is mononymous. Siddaramaiah is married to Parvathi and had two sons. His elder son,Rakesh,who was seen as his father's heir in politics,died of multiple organ failure in 2016 at the age of 38.[21] His other son,Yathindra,contested the 2018 Legislative Assembly elections and won from the seat of Varuna in Mysuru,formerly his father's seat,by over 45,000 votes.[22]
Siddaramaiah has stated on record that he is an atheist,[23] though he has more recently clarified his public stance on the subject:"Word has spread that I am an atheist,which I am not. I am spiritual -- I have participated in festivities as child. I have visited some of the popular pilgrimage centres. But I am definitely against superstition,as I view everything from a scientific point of view".[24]
Political career
Siddaramaiah's political career began when Nanjunda Swamy,a lawyer in Mysore,spotted him at the district courts as a law graduate. He was asked to contest and was elected to the Mysore Taluka. He contested on a Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket from Chamundeshwari constituency and entered the 7th Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1983. This was a surprise victory for all and it earned him a name and fame in the Old Mysore region.[citation needed]
Later he joined the ruling Janata Party and became the first president of the Kannada Surveillance Committee (Kannada Kavalu Samiti),set up to supervise the implementation of Kannada as an official language. During the mid-term polls in 1985,Siddaramaiah was re-elected from the same constituency and became Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services. In Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde's government,he handled diverse portfolios such as Sericulture,Animal Husbandry and Transport at different stages.[25]
He first suffered defeat in the 1989 Assembly elections,beaten by a veteran Congress leader,M. Rajasekara Murthy. Later in 1992,he was appointed Secretary General of Janata Dal,which H. D. Deve Gowda had also joined. He was elected again in the 1994 State Elections and became the Minister for Finance in the Janata Dal government headed by Deve Gowda. He was made Deputy Chief Minister when J. H. Patel became Chief Minister in 1996. He was sacked as Deputy Chief Minister and dropped from the Cabinet on 22 July 1999.[2] After the split in the Janata Dal,he joined the Janata Dal (Secular) faction of Deve Gowda and became the president of its state unit. However,he lost in the 1999 state elections. In 2004,when the Indian National Congress and JD (S) formed a coalition government with Dharam Singh as Chief Minister,he was again appointed Deputy Chief Minister.[26] He addressed ahinda samavesha in Hubballi,which had the huge public gathering. He even challenged Reddy brothers in the house when he was the leader of the opposition that he would come to Bellary through padayatra. It garnered attention of whole state and eventually Siddaramaiah came to power in 2013.[27]
Siddaramaiah celebrated his 75th birthday on 3 August 2022 in Davanagere and called it "Siddaramotsava",where more than 20 lakh followers of Siddaramaiah had attended the program.[28][29]
Indian National Congress
In 2005,after differences with H. D. Deve Gowda,Siddaramaiah was expelled from JD (S). He wanted to revive a regional party "ABPJD" in the state after quitting the JD (S),but he did not because regional parties formed earlier in Karnataka had not survived.[30] He subsequently garnered mass support from the backward classes and joined the Congress at a large public meeting held in Bangalore,in Sonia Gandhi's presence. He won the Chamundeshwari bypolls held in December 2006,by a margin of 257 votes against M. Shivabasappa of JD (S),despite a fierce campaign against him by Deve Gowda,Chief Minister Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister Yeddyurappa in the constituency.[26] In the 2008 state Assembly elections,he contested from Varuna Constituency and was re-elected for the fifth time.[31][32]
He won the 2013 election from the same constituency (Varuna) on 8 May 2013 and was reelected for the 7th time. He was elected as the leader of the Congress legislative party in the Karnataka assembly on 10 May 2013.[33] He had previously announced that the 2013 Assembly election would be his last election,[34] but in the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election,he left his safe Varuna seat for his son,and he himself went on to contest from two constituencies,i.e. Chamundeshwari and Badami,and faced stiff competition against GT Devegowda of JD (S) and B. Sriramulu of BJP respectively,both of which were new constituencies for him. He lost in Chamundeshwari,but won in Badami vidhan sabha seat beating BJP heavyweight Sriramulu with a narrow margin of 1,696 votes and he was reelected for the 8th time. Congress under his leadership then supported the Janata Dal (Secular) in forming the government in 2018 to keep BJP out of power. He was the chairman of coordination committee that coordinated the congress-JDS coalition govt under H. D Kumarswamy. After the resignation of 17 MLAs,leading to the downfall of the coalition government,Siddaramaiah took the leadership of the upcoming by-elections in Karnataka.[citation needed]
The by-polls were held on 5 December 2019 for the 15 assembly seats. Though Siddaramaiah expressed his confidence in winning 12 out of the 15 contested seats,Congress managed to win only 2 seats and the JDS winning none of it.[35] This was a major setback for his leadership and differences arose among his own party members questioning his leadership.[36] Thus Siddaramaiah resigned as the Leader of the CLP and the Leader of opposition of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on 9 December.[37]
In the 2023 Karnataka legislative assembly election,Siddaramaiah contested from Varuna constituency and won. This makes his 9th election win. He was sworn in as Chief minister for the second time.[38]
Chief Minister of Karnataka
First term (2013–2018)
Siddaramaiah in 2013Chief Minister of Karnataka,Siddaramaiah calling on the Prime Minister,Narendra Modi
On 15 May 2018,he resigned from his position of the Chief minister of Karnataka,respecting the verdict of the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election.[42] He also became the first chief minister of Karnataka to serve full 5 years term in 40 years,and the second in the history of the southern state after Devaraj Urs.[43] He also holds the record of presenting state budget 13 times as a finance minister in Government of Karnataka. Despite allegations of mounting debt on state exchequer by the opposition,he is known for maintaining fiscal prudence within the ambit of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act of the state.[44]
Second term (2023–present)
After the Congress emerged victorious in the 2023 legislative assembly election,Siddaramaiah was again elected Chief Minister,and D. K. Shivakumar was appointed his deputy.[38] After the first cabinet meet,Siddaramaiah announced that all "5 guarantees" announced in the party's manifesto had been approved and would be brought into effect in the following cabinet meet.[45] He also insisted that the officers roll back his "zero-traffic" protocol to avoid traffic congestion problems for the public.[46] His council of ministers was named the following week and was reported that he would hold finance,cabinet affairs and all unallocated portfolios.[47]
His cabinet approved reverting changes by the previous BJP government in school textbooks,which included removing lessons on RSS founder K. B. Hedgewar and Hindutva figure Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,[48] launched a scheme providing free bus rides to women in the Karnataka state buses[49] and announced implementation of other four pre-poll guarantees in the state budget.
In July 2023,he tabled the state budget for the record 14th time in state's history. He increased taxes on liquor,beer,stamp duty and registration of properties,and certain vehicle categories to fund the above-mentioned schemes.[50][51]
In July 2024 his cabinet approved a bill to reserve 50% to 75% jobs to native Kannada speakers,and 100% reservation for Group C and D employees in private and IT sectors. This idea received large opposition from people like Mohandas Pia,Kiran Mazumdar and others and hence the passing of the bill was postponed.[8]
Challenges
In July 2023,the state witnessed series of killings which included an on-duty police constable crushed to death by a sand mafia truck,[52] Jain monk Nandhi Maharaj from Belgaum,a worker named Venugopal in T. Narasipur and a double murder of CEO and MD of a company in Bangalore.[53] This led to criticism of law and order situation within the state.[54]
In July 2024,his cabinet minister B. Nagendra was accused of money transfers of around ₹187 crores into various bank accounts from the SC-ST Valmiki funds,in a suicide victim's death note.[55] With these accusations prevailing the minister was asked to step down,and the Enforcement Directorate instigated the investigation taking him into custody.[56] Siddaramaiah too agreed upon the illegal transactions on the floor of the house,but stated that it was ₹89 crores and not ₹187 crores.[57][58]
MUDA Scam
In August 2024,a social worker named T J Abraham filed a complaint to the governor against chief minister Siddaramaiah,accusing of "misuse of power" to influence "Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA)" to allot 14 site plots in Mysore to his wife.[59][60] This led to a wide row and the opposition parties demanded his resignation by conducting a march from Bangalore to Mysore.[61] Further on 17 August the governor Thawar Chand gehlot issued a prosecution notice against the chief minister to proceed investigations,based on these alleged irregularities.[62][63]
Further Siddaramaiah lodged a petition questioning the Governor's prosecution,stating that it is unconstitutional and the governor has not applied any mental ability before issuing the notice. On 24 September the High Court of Karnataka issued its judgement dismissing the petition,and stated that the "Governor has the provision to use independent decisions in such exceptional cases,and has used abundant application of mind,while the case would undoubtedly require investigation since the beneficiary is the family of the petitioner Siddaramaiah".[64][65]
The very next day on 25 September,the Special Court of Representatives ordered a detailed investigation of the case filed against the chief minister and transferred it to the Karnataka Lokayukta Mysore division,with a deadline to submit the investigation report within 3 months.[66][67]
Corruption allegations and controversies
The Karnataka Lokayukta has filed 61 corruption cases,out of which 11 were disposed of as of 2019. Siddaramaiah has 50 cases pending against him in the Lokayukta.[68][69]
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