Siddaramaiah

Siddaramaiah (born 3 August 1947), also referred to by his nickname Siddu, is an Indian politician who is serving as the 22nd Chief Minister of Karnataka since 2023.

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.

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.

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 served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1996 to 1999 and from 2004 to 2005 while he was a member of the Janata Dal and Janata Dal (Secular).

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.

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.

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.

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.

He also held that position previously from 2013 to 2018, being only the second person to hold that office for a full five-year term.

He belongs to the Indian National Congress and is presently the leader of the Congress Legislative Party.

He represented the Varuna Assembly constituency from 2023, previously from 2008 to 2018, Badami Assembly constituency from 2018 to 2023, and from Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency from 2004 to 2007, 1994 to 1999 and from 1983 to 1989 in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

It garnered attention of whole state and eventually Siddaramaiah came to power in 2013.

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.

His elder son, Rakesh, seen as his father's heir in politics, died of multiple organ failure in 2016 at the age of 38.

The surviving son, Dr.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.

Siddaramaiah has stated on record that he is an atheist, 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 science point of view".

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 also served as the Leader of the Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly on two occasions from 2019 to 2023 and from 2009 to 2013.

Siddaramaiah was a member of various Janata Parivar factions for several years.

He was born to Siddarame Gowda and Boramma in a remote village called Siddaramanahundi in Varuna Hobli near T. Narasipura of Mysore district in a farming family.

He had no formal schooling until he was ten, he studied his high school from Vidyavardhaka High School managed by Vidyavardhaka Sangha (VVS), Mysuru.

Then went on to do his B. Sc.

and LL.B.

from Mysore University.

He is the fourth among six siblings and he belongs to Kuruba Gowda community.

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 managed by Vidyavardhaka Sangha (VVS), Mysuru.

Siddaramaiah is mononymous.

Siddaramaiah is married to Parvathi and had two sons.