Siddaramaiah, 45-year-old CM record of Devaraj Urs, and life parallels

Congress leader Siddaramaiah's love for the CM's chair is his desire to beat the record of D Devaraj Urs, who is the state's longest-serving chief minister. Siddaramiah's desire to shatter the record of Urs seems to be behind the power tussle with his deputy, DK Shivakumar. The Sidda-DKS rift boiled over yet again this week.

To maintain peace in one of the three states where the party holds power, the Congress high command despatched Randeep Surjewala. The Congress MP said on Tuesday that there wasn't going to be any change in the state leadership for now.

This will likely buy some time for Siddaramaiah to fulfil his ambition to script history as Karnataka's longest-serving CM. He needs to sit tight on the chair till January 6, 2026, for that. Urs, also from the Congress, was the Karnataka CM for a total of seven years and 238 days. The longest continuous term he served in the office was 5 years and 285 days.

Siddaramaiah had told a Kannada news channel in February about his desire to be the longest-serving Karnataka CM, according to a report in the Deccan Herald.

The life and circumstances of Siddaramaiah also has uncanny parallels to that of Urs, whose record he wants to shatter.

Urs was, in fact, the first chief minister after Mysore was renamed Karnataka in 1973.

SIDDARAMAIAH AND URS: BACKWARD COMMUNITY LEADERS

The political history of Karnataka, or Mysore, after the state's reorganisation in 1956 has been dominated by two major communities -- Lingayats and Vokkaligas.

Devaraj Urs became Karnataka's first backward-class chief minister in 1972. Urs belonged to the Arasu caste, whose population in Karnataka was just 40,000 in 2012, according to the state's law minister S Suresh Kumar.

Until Urs became the CM, the majority of the chief ministers of the state were from the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities.

Regarded largely as the leader of backward and minority communities, Urs formulated a political terminology in Karnataka Politics -- 'Ahinda' (Kannada Acronym for Minorities, Backward Community, and Dalits).

He tried to uplift the backward communities in Karnataka and inspired others from these communities to become leaders. After Urs, Karnataka witnessed several CMs from the backward communities, including Sarekoppa Bangarappa, M Veerappa Moily and Siddaramaiah.

Just like Urs, Siddaramaiah is also regarded as the leader of backward and minority communities.

Siddaramaiah belongs to the Kuruba Gowda community with a population of 43,72,847, according to the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census.

He has breathed new life into Urs' Ahinda politics.

Like Urs, who broke into the Lingayat- and Vokkaliga-dominated political sphere, Siddaramaiah disrupted the power game as leaders from the two communities started to occupy the CM's chair with the alliance between the BJP and the JD(S) in 2006.

Siddaramaiah became the CM in 2013 for the first time.

After the 2018 Assembly election, the Congress returned to power with JD(S) as the junior coalition partner but offered the CM's post to HD Kumaraswamy. With some Congress MLAs joining the BJP, the Congress-JD(S) combine lost power.

BOTH URS, SIDDARAMAIAH DEALT WITH PARTY FEUD

Both Urs and Siddaramaiah engaged in a power tussle within the party with former prime ministers.

Urs protested against then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's imposition of the Emergency in 1975. The friction led to his ouster from Congress in 1979.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was from former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's JD(S). Their synergy and grassroots work saw the JD(S) develop into a strong regional party.

However, the relationship turned sour in 2005 when Siddaramaiah was the deputy CM in the JD(S)-Congress government.

Both parties had agreed on power-sharing on a rotational basis. Fearing not getting the CM's chair, Siddaramaiah tried to strengthen the Ahinda forces. Deve Gowda asked Siddaramaiah to step down from the deputy CM post. Siddaramaiah, claiming that he was expelled from the JD(S) by Deve Gowda, joined the Congress in 2006.

CONGRESS BIGGEST VICTORIES CAME UNDER URS, SIDDARAMAIAH

The Congress in Karnataka witnessed its biggest victories -- in terms of seat count and vote share -- under the leadership of Urs and Siddaramaiah.

Both the leaders have proved to be crowd-pullers in Karnataka.

In the 1972 Assembly election, the Urs-led Congress garnered 165 of the 216 seats, with a whopping 52.17% vote share.

Under Siddaramaiah's leadership in 2023, the Congress won 135 of the 224 seats, gaining a majority with a 42.88% vote share. This was the party's biggest victory in Karnataka in 34 years.

Another interesting similarity between Urs and Siddaramaiah is that both were part of the Congress as well as the Janata Party. While Urs served for two terms as chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah's second one is ongoing.

Siddaramaiah will try to remain in the CM's seat at least till January 6, 2026, to break the record of Devaraj Urs, with whom his life has interesting parallels.

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