As DK Shivakumar becomes Karnataka Deputy CM, recalling the history of the post

What is the post of Deputy CM?

Article 163(1) of the Constitution says “there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions”.

Neither Article 163 nor Article 164 (“Other provisions as to Ministers”), sub clause (1) of which says “the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the Governor and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister”, mentions a Deputy Chief Minister.

The post of Deputy CM is understood as being equivalent in rank to that of Cabinet Minister (in the state). The Deputy CM enjoys the same pay and perks as a Cabinet Minister.

Across various states

Ten other states in the country (besides Karnataka) currently have Deputy CMs. This list includes Devendra Fadnavis, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, and Dushyant Chautala in the coalition governments in Maharashtra, Bihar, and Haryana respectively; Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak in UP; and Mukesh Agnihotri in Himachal Pradesh. Four states in the Northeast have Deputy CMs. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh has as many as five Deputies.

A brief history of the Deputy CM post

Perhaps the first Deputy CM in India was Anugrah Narayan Sinha, an upper caste Rajput leader from Aurangabad, who was the most important leader of the Congress in Bihar after the first Chief Minister of the state, Dr Srikrishna Singh (Sinha).

Deputy CMs were seen in more states, especially after the reduction of the Congress’s near-total dominance on national politics after 1967. Some examples:

BIHAR: Anugrah Narayan Sinha remained Deputy CM until his death in 1957.

Anugrah Narayan Sinha. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Karpoori Thakur became the second Deputy CM of Bihar in 1967, in the state’s first non-Congress government led by Mahamaya Prasad Sinha. Subsequently, Jagdeo Prasad and Ram Jaipal Singh Yadav were appointed Deputy CMs.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister in 2005 and served in the post for 13 years in all. He was followed by Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD (in two separate stints), and Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi of the BJP.

UTTAR PRADESH: Ram Prakash Gupta of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) became Deputy Chief Minister in the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) government that came to power in 1967 with Chaudhary Charan Singh as Chief Minister.

This experiment was repeated in the next government under Chief Minister Chandra Bhanu Gupta of the Congress — when Kamalapati Tripathi was sworn in as Deputy CM in February 1969. Both Ram Prakash Gupta and Tripathi went on to become CMs themselves.

Subsequently, Ram Naresh Yadav, who was forced to resign as Chief Minister in 1979, became Deputy CM under Banarasi Das, his successor as Chief Minister (1979-80), along with another leader named Narain Singh.

In the 2017 Yogi Adityanath government, Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma became Deputy CMs. Maurya has continued in the post in the 2022 Yogi government, which has a second Deputy CM in Brajesh Pathak.

MADHYA PRADESH: Virendra Kumar Saklecha of the BJS became Deputy CM in the SVD government led by Govind Narain Singh that came to power in July 1967.

Later in 1980, Bhanu Solanki became Deputy CM in Chief Minister Arjun Singh’s government; and Subhash Yadav and Jamuna Devi had the position when Digvijaya Singh was Chief Minister.

HARYANA: Haryana has had a tradition of Deputy CMs; Chaudhary Chand Ram, a Jat leader from Rohtak, was the first to hold this position in the short lived government led by Rao Birender Singh.

Former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s son Chander Mohan held the position from 2005 to 2008 in the Congress government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Jannayak Janata Party leader Dushyant Chautala has been Deputy to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar since 2019.

PUNJAB: Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukbhir Singh Badal was Deputy to his father Parkash Singh Badal from 2009-17. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Om Parkash Soni were Deputy CMs in the six-month government of Charanjit Singh Channi.

Deputy Prime Minister

India has also seen several Deputy Prime Ministers — a post that was first held by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister. Nehru and Patel were the two tallest leaders of the Congress at the time, and were also seen as representing two different streams of thinking within the party.

Among those who held the position subsequently were Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Chaudhary Devi Lal, and Lal Krishna Advani.

Devi Lal’s appointment as Deputy PM in V P Singh’s government in 1989 was challenged in court on the ground that “the oath administered to him as such was not…in accordance with the prescription of the Constitution”.

In K M Sharma vs Devi Lal and Ors (1990), the Supreme Court upheld Devi Lal’s appointment “in view of the clear statement made by the learned Attorney General that Respondent No. 1 (Lal) is just a Minister like other members of the Council of Ministers, though he has been described as Deputy Prime Minister… The description of him as Deputy Prime Minister does not confer on him any powers of the Prime Minister”.