Doddalahalli Kempegowda Shivakumar is an Indian politician who is the 9th and Current Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka and also Water resources and Bengaluru Development and Town Planning Minister since 20 May 2023 as a member of the Indian National Congress. He is also the President of the Karnataka PCC since 2020 and was the Working President from 2008 to 2010. He was the cabinet minister in the Government of Karnataka from 2014 to 2019. He represents the Kanakapura constituency in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly since 2008 and from Sathanur Assembly constituency from 1989 to 2004.

Personal life

Shivakumar was born to Kempegowda and Gouramma in Kanakapura near Bangalore, Karnataka. He belongs to the Vokkaliga community.

He has a younger brother D. K. Suresh who's also a politician. Shivakumar married Usha in 1993 and has two daughters, Aishwarya and Aabharana, and a son Aakash with her. His eldest daughter is married to Amartya, son of Café Coffee Day founder V. G. Siddhartha.

Political career

Shivakumar started his political career in the early 1980s as a student leader and gradually rose through the ranks of the Congress party. He won his first election in 1989 when he was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the Sathanur constituency in Mysuru district. He was just 27 years old at the time and contested the election on a Congress ticket. Shivakumar went on to win re-election from the same constituency in the subsequent assembly elections in 1994, 1999 and 2004. He won from Kanakapura constituency in 2008, 2013, 2018 & 2023.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, during his tenure as Chief Minister of Maharashtra, worked closely with Shivakumar when he faced the motion of no confidence in 2002. Shivakumar hosted the Maharastra legislators in his resort located in the outskirts of Bangalore for a week until the date of vote. This saved Deshmukh's government.

Just before his election to the Rajya Sabha in 2017 from Gujarat, he assisted his party leadership to move 42 Gujarat Congress MLAs into his resort in Bengaluru in order to avoid them moving to another political party. Subsequently, this helped Ahmed Patel to win election.

He is credited with playing a critical role in the formation of the coalition government of Indian National Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka following the 2018 election.

He is also a close confidante of party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Shivakumar is among the richest politicians in India. While filing his nomination for election in 2018, he declared total assets of ₹840 crore.

On 2 July 2020, Shivakumar officially took charge as Karnataka PCC president succeeding Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Positions held

Electoral statistics