D K Shivakumar’s journey to Karnataka’s top job began with a ‘no’ in school

1970s
Shivakumar joined Carmel School in Class 6. While he was in Class 7, he faced his first student election. Shivakumar later recalled that though he had won the election, the results were not announced and his rival was made the president and that a new post of sports secretary was created for him. Kencha, an ice-candy seller near Shivakumar’s school, helped him write good election campaign speeches, he has said. He completed high school at Vidyavardhaka School, where he was blocked from contesting the election for the president post owing to his reputation for “mischief”. Then, he came up with a plan to field his friend Krishna Deshapande and deliver speeches on behalf of the candidate. His friend won the election.

1978
Shivakumar joined Sree Veerendra Patil PU College. He contested student elections and also served as secretary during his pre-university college days.

1981
DK Shivakumar enrolled at Sri Jagadguru Renukacharya College for graduation and joined student politics. He contested college union elections and also came in contact with the Bengaluru underworld. He was reportedly associated with Kothwal Ramachandra, an underworld don and rowdy-sheeter.

1983
Shivakumar joined the Indian Youth Congress and became its general secretary.

1985
While Shivakumar was in the final year of his undergraduate degree, he was given a ticket to contest against former prime minister H D Deve Gowda from the Sathanur Assembly constituency for the Congress. He lost to Devegowda by a small margin. It was also the beginning of the political rivalry between two powerful Vokkaliga families of Karnataka.

1989
The Congress refused to field 27-year-old Shivakumar in the Assembly elections, and he contested and won the polls from Sathanur as an independent candidate.

1991
When S Bangarappa was the chief minister, Shivakumar became a junior minister for the first time. “I was writing the names for the cabinet, and Dharam Singh was with me. Then Bangarappa said I was a jail minister and have become chief minister, Devaraj Urs was a jail minister and became a chief minister. I will make you a jail minister, and you will become the chief minister in future.” Shivakumar recalled. He described Bangarappa as his political guru.

1993
Shivakumar married Usha, the daughter of R Thimmaiah, who was active in local politics and lived in Mysuru.

1994
Shivakumar won as an independent candidate from Sathanur again and got close to S M Krishna, then a senior Congress leader. Shivakumar was seen as an S M Krishna loyalist who could get work done.

1999
Shivakumar defeats H D Kumaraswamy, son of Deve Gowda, on a Congress ticket and he becomes a cabinet minister in charge of Bengaluru urban development. In 2004 and 2008, Shivakumar continued to win on a Congress ticket. In 2008, due to delimitation, he won from the Kanakapura Assembly segment and the Sathanur segment was removed.

2013
While Shivakumar’s winning streak continued, he was kept out of Siddaramaiah’s Congress government over corruption allegations, but was later inducted following the high command’s directions.

2017
While Shivakumar was a minister, the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his premises soon after the Rajya Sabha elections, during which he had sheltered 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs to prevent the BJP from poaching them. Shivakumar, who was known till then as a “financier” or “money bag” in political circles, got the tag of a “troubleshooter”. The elections helped Congress to re-elect former AICC president and Sonia Gandhi confidant Ahmed Patel to the Upper House of Parliament.

2018
Shivakumar became the water resources and medical education minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. He was also one of those who worked to hold the coalition government intact.

2019
Shivakumar was arrested on the charges of money laundering and spent 50 days in Tihar Jail before securing bail. He then vowed that he would not shave his beard till he became the chief minister. In many interviews later, he said that two choices were given to him: either to become a deputy chief minister in a BJP government or be jailed. “I chose jail,” he had said. After the episode, he got another tag, “Kanakapurada Bande (Kanakapura rock)”.

2020
Shivakumar was appointed as the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and launched himself as a contender for the chief minister post. He started to rebuild teams of grassroots Congress workers ahead of the Assembly polls.

2023
The Congress in Karnataka won a thumping majority, but Shivakumar’s chief ministerial ambition was put on hold by the high command, which reportedly brokered a power-sharing agreement between Siddaramaiah and himself. Siddaramaiah became the chief minister and Shivakumar his deputy. On his first day in office, he visited the NPS School, from where he was expelled after Class 5, and met Gopalkrishna.

2026
After months of speculation over a leadership change and the tussle between him and Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar was elected leader of the Congress legislative party on May 30 after the high command finally greenlighted the change of guard. He thus became the chief minister of Karnataka.