Siddaramaiah Steps Down: The Mass Leader Who Rose From Poverty To Power

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]When the Congress High Command decided it was time for a change in Karnataka, it offered him Delhi, a Rajya Sabha seat, and a national role.

[00:00:09]Because this is a man you don't push out, you negotiate with.

[00:00:16]Siddaramaiah is not just any Congress Chief Minister. He's a leader with mass connect, built over decades [music] cutting across castes, communities, and generations of Karnataka politics.

[00:00:43]It started with a convention in Hubballi in 2005.

[00:00:47]Siddaramaiah, still inside the JD(S), organized a massive rally for backward classes, minorities, [music] and Dalits.

[00:00:55]While it widened his rift with H.D. Deve Gowda and eventually cost [music] him his place in the party.

[00:01:03]But what looked like a political setback became his masterstroke.

[00:01:07]He brought the AHINDA coalition into Congress >> [music] >> and rebuilt the party's social base from the ground up.

[00:01:14]Hailing from the Kuruba community, [music] just 7% of Karnataka's population, Siddaramaiah became the voice of a constituency far larger than his own caste.

[00:01:25]>> [music] >> We our party is committed to social justice.

[00:01:29]We We have to take a decision to do justice to all communities, among Scheduled Castes.

[00:01:37]>> Siddaramaiah's politics was never about caste. It was about delivery. Welfare schemes that reached kitchens, >> [music] >> bus stops, and farmlands across Karnataka. In his first term, the Bhagya umbrella built him a pro-poor identity.

[00:01:52]In his second, five guarantee schemes [music] reinforced it.

[00:01:58]Today, more than 80 MLAs in the Congress Legislature [music] Party are reportedly loyal to Siddaramaiah.

[00:02:03]That is not sentiment, that is structural power. And it is precisely why the high command has spent 3 years [music] walking the tightrope.

[00:02:13]Then there is a Yeddyurappa example, a cautionary tale that Congress watched [music] from the front row.

[00:02:20]When the BJP eased out B.S. Yeddyurappa in 2021, it didn't just lose a leader.

[00:02:26]Many in Karnataka believe it began losing a section of Lingayat voters, too.

[00:02:32]And the Congress must not forget, when Siddaramaiah left the JDS, he didn't just walk out. He took the backward class vote bank with him.

[00:02:40]And the JDS never fully recovered that social breadth.

[00:02:44]The Congress has no [music] intention of being on the receiving end of that history repeating itself.

[00:02:50]The Congress's offer of a Rajya Sabha seat is not a consolation prize. [music] It is a calculated repositioning.

[00:02:57]Rahul Gandhi has aggressively sharpened the Congress's caste census [music] and social justice pitch. With Siddaramaiah accepting the state caste survey report as the last [music] act before his breakfast meeting, the optics of an OBC stalwart being eased out after [music] years of tussle is a liability in the narrative war.

[00:03:17]For the national campaign, Siddaramaiah is now an asset to be deployed.

[00:03:22]Karnataka's longest-serving chief minister didn't rise [music] through inheritance or dynasty, but through decades of patient coalition building, welfare politics, and an instinct for the pulse of communities. [music] The Congress may want to write the next chapter in Karnataka, but Siddaramaiah will not be written out of it.

[00:03:43]Bureau Report, NDTV.