Congress trouble shooter D K Shivakumar is new KPCC president

Bengaluru, Mar 11: The Congress party's ace troubleshooter in Karnataka D K Shivakumar was named as the next president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah will continue to serve as the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly and leader of the Congress Legislature Party. Legislators Eshwar Khandre, Satish Jarkiholi and Saleem Ahammed have been appointed as KPCC Working Presidents.

The announcement comes at a time when the party is on a shaky wicket as it faced a huge setback in Madhya Pradesh.

Shivakumar is a Vokkaliga, a caste that has not been sympathetic to the BJP and comes from the Southern part of the state where the party did relatively better in the assembly polls.

Shivakumar has always been in the Congress -- since he joined the Youth Congress when he was in college.

Shivakumar contested the 1989 elections as an independent candidate. But just two years later, he became the youngest minister in the state at the age of 30, serving as a Minister of State under Chief Minister S Bangarappa from 1991 to 1992.

DK Shivakumar is known for his dynamism and is a powerhouse of the congress party. He is a member of the Legislative Assembly from Kanakapura constituency. Like other politicians, he was also involved in corruption charges including illegal mining case, alleged involvement in Shanthinagar housing society scam.

Shivakumar is among the richest politicians in Karnataka. While filing his nomination for election in 2018, he declared total assets of ₹840 crore, an increase of more than ₹600 crore from the 2013 election.

The senior Congress leader known for his repeated bailing out of the party from crisis situations. His skills came to the fore when Maharashtra congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh faced crisis as the ruling Congress-NCP alliance had collapsed.

He flew some Maharashtra MLAs to Bengaluru and hosted them at his Eagleton resort for a week. The MLAs were flown back to Mumbai on the day of trust vote. Deshmukh won the trust of Maharashtra assembly and Shivakumar of Sonia Gandhi, the then Congress president.

He is also instrumental in senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel's election to Rajya Sabha last year despite BJP's effort to foil their plan, Shivakumar ensured his victory. He again flew more than 40 Gujarat MLAs from the Congress to Bengaluru and brougth them back in time for voting.

Even during Karnataka crisis Shivakumar stood firm and fought till the end attempting to keep the party's flock together but failed.