Secrets of Siddaramaiah's political might in Karnataka

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has seen his political stature rising in the Assembly election campaign. His relentless charge at the prime minister during the Karnataka election campaign has virtually turned the state Assembly polls fight into a Siddaramaiah versus Modi battle.
Siddaramaiah is eying to be the first Congress chief minister since 1983 to win two consecutive terms. Incidentally, Siddaramaiah's political ambitions took wings the same year. Then Siddaramaiah was a Janata Party ticket aspirant for the 1983 Karnataka Assembly election. Reports suggest that he was among the aspirants waiting at the Janata Party office in Bengaluru.

The then Janata Party president HD Deve Gowda was not in favour of giving him the party ticket and all attempts to get one by Siddaramaiah resulted in failure. He was considered a "right wing" political activist at the time. A distraught Siddaramaiah is said to have turned to Abdul Nazeer Sab, who is best known for bringing panchayati raj in Karnataka and ensuring drinking water in villages.
Siddaramaiah considered Abdul Nazeer Sab as his political guru. On Abdul Nazeer Sab's advice, Siddaramaiah contested 1983 Karnataka Assembly election as Independent candidate from Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru (then Mysore) district.
Siddaramaiah won the election and announced support to the Ramkrishna Hegde government of Janata Party. The then Chief Minister Hegde responded by appointing him the chairman of the committee set up to make Kannada the official language of Karnataka in 1983.
Even before he won the Chamundeshwari seat, Siddaramaiah had made himself a voice of the farmers in Mysore region. He was known as "the farmers' lawyer" and had served as a member of Mysore Taluka Board since 1978.
His work ethics and commitment as the language committee head impressed Deve Gowda. But there was something else that had made Deve Gowda take Siddaramaiah in his team. Siddaramaiah came from Kuruba community for whom grazing animals was the primary economic and livelihood activity.
The community had close connection with the farmers which had made Siddaramaiah a mass leader in the Mysore region. Siddaramaiah, additionally, had very good reach among the Vokkaliga community, which Deve Gowda belongs to.
Meanwhile, Hegde inducted Siddaramaiah in his cabinet as a minister of state in 1985. It was an acknowledgement of Siddaramaiah's growing stature in Karnataka politics. Deve Gowda formed partnership with Siddaramaiah to expand his base in the Mysore region.
By 1989 Karnataka election, the Janata Party had split into the Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Janata Party. Siddaramaiah sided with the Janata Dal, which Deve Gowda was part of. However, he tasted first electoral defeat in 1989 from Chamundeshwari.
In 1994 Karnataka



polls, Siddaramaiah returned to Assembly and became the finance minister in the Deve Gowda government. He was the second most powerful minister in the Karnataka Cabinet. Siddaramaiah is said to be having such deep understanding of finances that the officials considered experts on the subject in the finance ministry hesitate from facing him.
When Deve Gowda became the prime minister in 1996, Siddaramaiah became the deputy chief minister in the JH Patel government. By the time of 1999 Karnataka election, the Janata Dal had split into many smaller parties. The Karnataka unit practically turned into the Janata Dal (Secular) under Deve Gowda. Siddaramaiah joined the JD(S) but suffered his second electoral defeat from Chamundeshwari.
He won back the seat in 2004 and again became the deputy chief minister when JD(S) formed coalition government with the Congress. Congress leader Dharam Singh was the chief minister.
Siddaramaiah was the most powerful leader in the JD(S) after Deve Gowda, who suddenly after 2004 Karnataka election showed his strong "soft inclination" for son HD Kumaraswamy. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Siddaramaiah might never become the chief minister of Karnataka if he stayed with Deve Gowda.
On the other hand, Kumaraswamy joined hands with the BJP to bring down the Dharam Singh government. Siddaramaiah quit the JD(S) in 2006 to float his own outfit All India Progressive Janata Dal but merged it with the Congress the same year. The then Congress president Sonia Gandhi was on the dais when Siddaramaiah joined the party.
Mid-2000 was also a time in Karnataka when veteran leader RL Jalappa, the Congress leader and close aide of Devraj Urs (Karnataka CM 1972-77), was attempting fresh social engineering in the state politics. Devraj Urs was the first chief minister of Karnataka who tried to break the political dominance of Lingayats and Vokkaligas in 1970s by giving more weightage to backward castes.
RL Jalappa took the social engineering experiment further in coordination with Siddaramaiah. Jalappa created AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minority, Dalits and backward castes) formula in Karnataka politics.
When Siddaramaiah became the chief minister of Karnataka, he turned AHINDA group into his strongest constituency announcing a series of schemes for them. Siddaramaiah is perhaps the only Congress leader who was elected to head the government by party legislators through secret ballot - without getting word of hint from the high command.
The AHINDA castes form close to 80 per cent of Karnataka population and comprise almost all the poor sections of society. Siddaramaiah's freebies - Bhagya Anna, Ksheer Anna and the like - have made him popular among AHINDA castes making him a strong contender for comeback post-May 15 Karnataka election results.