All about D K Shivakumar, Congress' Chanakya eyeing Karnataka's top office

With Karnataka's next Chief Minister likely to be decided in Delhi soon, D K Shivakumar's name dominates every conversation. The Congress veteran, along with the current Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, is currently in Delhi, awaiting what could be the biggest moment of his political career.

As the state watches, we take a step back to look at the man behind the ambition — his wealth, his properties, and the financial journey of a politician who has never shied away from the spotlight.

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Why is he eyeing the top office in Karnataka? 

D K Shivakumar is in the middle of the Karnataka Congress crisis because of a 2.5-year rotational power-sharing agreement established in May 2023. As Siddaramaiah has completed three years in office, Shivakumar and his supporters are actively urging the Congress high command to honour the commitment. 

His supporters claim that Shivakumar deserves to get the top job as he was instrumental in ensuring the party's victory through grassroots mobilisation and resource management that he did as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president.

He is also considered to be an influential leader of the Vokkaliga community. 

How rich is D K Shivakumar?

According to his 2023 election affidavit filed before the Karnataka Assembly polls, the Karnataka Congress strongman has declared total assets worth ₹1,413.80 crore, a significant increase from ₹840.01 crore declared in 2018. 

This includes immovable assets valued at ₹1,140.38 crore and movable assets valued at ₹273.41 crore. He also mentioned total liabilities valued at ₹265.06 crore and his total annual income at ₹14.4 crore. 

At the time of filing the affidavit, a total of 19 cases were ongoing against him, including ongoing investigations by the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

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Why is he considered so influential in the Karnataka Congress?

DK Shivakumar is not only one of India's wealthiest politicians but also the Congress party's veteran crisis manager. He is known for funding the large-scale party rallies and massive campaign advertisement blitzes. 

He is also known for keeping the complex election machinery running as Shivakumar designs booth-level management plans. He not only leverages local caste equations but also deploys grassroots workers and analyses the political landscape to flip the hostile constituencies at the last minute. 

Congress ka Amit Shah?

He earned national fame as the grand old party's ultimate "troubleshooter", coming from his expertise in "resort politics", a strategy typically deployed to prevent rivals from poaching MLAs ahead of critical floor tests or elections. 

In 2017, D K Shivakumar came into prominence when the Congress high command tasked him with safeguarding the remaining MLAs after the BJP launched an aggressive campaign to flip Congress voters, prompting sudden resignations from Gujarat Congress MLAs. 

He flew 44 MLAs out of their home state to the ultra-luxury Eagleton Golf Resort in Bengaluru, with the facility completely under his control. Shivakumar confiscated the MLAs' mobile phones, blocked media access, and deployed a tight circle of trusted loyalists around the property to avoid any external contact. 

Later, the Income Tax Department launched a massive, sudden raid on the resort and Shivakumar's personal residences while the MLAs were lodged inside the resort. Refusing to back down, he stayed with the MLAs and escorted them directly to the airport to cast their votes.

Following this, the late Ahmed Patel won the Rajya Sabha election by a razor-thin margin. This, however, was not it as he also safeguarded the party's numbers when it scored a fractured mandate in the 2018 Karnataka assembly election, and the same Eagleton Golf Resort came to his rescue yet again. 

Besides this, he played the role of a crisis manager effortlessly in Maharashtra (2002), Telangana (2023), Himachal Pradesh (2024), Odisha (2026), and Assam (2026). 

When did he first play the role of a troubleshooter?

In 2002, Shivakumar built, tested, and perfected the art of resort politics when the Democratic Front coalition government in Maharashtra, led by the late Vilasrao Deshmukh and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was navigating choppy waters. 

Several independent MLAs and smaller party members withdrew support, and the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance aggressively attempted to engineer defections to bring down the government, prompting the Governor to order Deshmukh to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly. 

Later, Shivakumar quietly shifted 71 allied MLAs out of Maharashtra into the high-security Golden Palms Resort in Bengaluru. Every single MLA was issued a strict internal ID card and barred from stepping out of the resort premises alone. 

Landlines were monitored, and outside access was heavily restricted to ensure rival leaders couldn't make financial or political counter-offers. On the day of the trust vote, Shivakumar personally boarded the aircraft with them and flew from Bengaluru to Mumbai.

He took all the 71 MLAs from the Mumbai airport onto the floor of the Maharashtra Assembly. As a result of his efforts, all MLAs voted strictly on party lines, and Vilasrao Deshmukh successfully won the trust vote.