Siddaramaiah

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Siddaramaiah bigraphy, stories - Indian politician

Siddaramaiah : biography

12 August 1948 –

Siddaramaiah (born 12 August 1948) is the 22nd Chief Minister of Karnataka state in South India. Currently a leader of the Indian National Congress party, Siddaramaiah was a member of various Janata Parivar factions for several years. Earlier, as a Janata Dal (Secular) leader, he was Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka on two occasions. On 13 May 2013 he was sworn in as the new chief minister of Karnataka.

Career

Siddaramaiah was a junior under a lawyer, Chikkaboraiah, in Mysore and later taught law for some time.

Political career

In 1978, he began political career when Najunda 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. His was a surprise victory and it earned him name and fame in the Old Mysore region.

Later he joined the ruling Janata Party and became the first president of Kannada Watchdog Committee (Kannada Kavalu Samiti) set up to supervise the implementation of Kannada as 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 portfolios during different stages.

He first suffered defeat in 1989 Assembly elections in front of a veteran Congress Leader M. Rajasekara Murthy. Later in 1992, he was appointed as 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. 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 JDS formed a coalition government with Dharam Singh as Chief minister, he was again appointed as Deputy Chief Minister.

Congress

In 2006, after differences with Deve Gowda, Siddaramaiah was expelled from JD (S). He wanted to form a regional party in the state after quitting the JD-S, he did not because regional parties, formed in Karnataka earlier did not survive. 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 by a margin of 257 votes, despite a fierce campaign against him by Deve Gowda, the then Chief Minister Kumaraswamy and then Deputy Chief Minister Yeddyurappa in the constituency. In the 2008 state Assembly elections, he contested from Varuna Constituency and was re-elected for the fifth time.

He won 2013 election from same constituency on 8 May 2013. He was elected as the leader of the Congress legislative party in the Karnataka assembly on 10 May 2013. He had previously announced that 2013 assembly election would be his last election.

Chief Minister of Karnataka

Siddaramaiah was elected as Chief Minister, after the Congress adopted secret balloting route to select the new chief minister.

Positions held

  • Chief Minister of Karnataka (13 May 2013 – present)
  • Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka (twice, 1996 and 2004)
  • Minister for Finance
  • Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (1985)
  • Minister for Sericulture and Animal Husbandry
  • Minister for Transport

Early life

He was born to Siddarame Gowda and Boramma in a remote village called Siddaramanahundi in Varuna Hobli of Mysore District in a farmer family.

He had no formal schooling till he was ten but went on to do his B.Sc and Bachelor of Law from Mysore University. He is a leader of the Kuruba Gowda community, the third largest in Karnataka. He is the second amongst five siblings. 

Personal life

He is married to Parvathi and has two sons: Rakesh, who has held a few film roles and helps his father, and Yathindra, who is a doctor. He is an atheist, and took the chief minister’s oath in name of "Truth" instead of "God".