The Importance Of Congress's D.K Shivakumar: "Former Shishya" Of Kotwal Ramachandra Is Now One Of Karnataka's Richest Businessman-Politician

Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar is again in the crosshairs of investigative agencies, with Enforcement Directorate (ED) issuing a fresh notice to him and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) initiating a similar action against his daughter Aishwarya Shivakumar.

It is Shivakumar’s vast education empire that is now come under the radar of the agencies.

A few months earlier, CBI sleuths conducted searches on the educational institutions run by Shivakumar in connection with a disproportionate assets case in which he is under investigation.

Shivakumar serves as the chairman of the National Education Foundation (NEF), and his daughter D.K.S. Aishwarya is a management member. NEF runs multiple educational institutions, including the Global Academy of Technology, the National Hill View Public School(NHVPS) chain and Global Nursing College.

The ED is also investigating Shivakumar’s role in the National Herald corruption case in which Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are the main accused and are currently out on bail.

Arrest In 2019

ED arrested the Kanakapura strongman in September 2019 following multiple rounds of questioning in a case that emerged from an Income Tax Department investigation against him over charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions running to crores. 

The arrest was based on investigations following Income Tax searches carried out in August 2017 at 70 premises linked to him. The investigations partially pertained to the period when Sivakumar was the energy minister in the Congress government in Karnataka. He was lodged in Tihar Jail for over a month. Delhi high court granted him bail a month later.

In May 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a chargesheet against Shivakumar in a Delhi court nearly three years after the central agency arrested him in a money-laundering case.

Shivakumar and his family members have been previously accused and even chargesheeted in multiple cases of illegal mining and transporting granite illegally and improper land distribution.

In 2015, the Karnataka high court issued notices to Shivakumar and his family for their alleged role in illegal mining activities in Karnataka’s Kanakapura and Ramanagara districts. Shivakumar and his brother DK Suresh have also been accused of grabbing 66 acres of land meant for the Dalits and poor.

Shivakumar's Business Empire

Despite the notoriety he has gained in over three decades of political career in the state and common knowledge that he has amassed enormous wealth, Shivakumar continues to hold sway in the Congress party and is viewed as critical to the revival of party’s fortunes in the state.

A one-time protege of notorious gangster Kotwal Ramachandra, both BJP and JD(S) often invoke his unsavoury past, most recently when he was seen slapping a party worker in public glare.

As someone from a very modest background who used to run a tent cinema and distribute milk in his native place, Shivakumar has now built a formidable business empire ranging from granite quarries to iron ore export to land parcel facilitation service for big builders to education to luxury hospitality to real estate firms through proxies to transport companies.

A cursory glance at Shivakumar’s election-eve affidavits over the year will provide information on various transactions he has entered with leading real estate firms in Bengaluru. Sobha Developers, Puravankara, Davanam Constructions, and Shriram properties are names mentioned for their close links to the Congress leader.

For instance, in 2022, Sobha Developers settled a Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices (PFUTP) case with SEBI by paying ₹2.925 crores. The company was deemed to have carried out certain transactions with Shivakumar and his family members/associates that were against the interest of the minority shareholders of Sobha.

Shivakumar was also investigated over allegations of benami ownership of Sharma Transport, founded initially by late Congressman Dhanraj Parasmal Sharma. The company runs a fleet of luxury cum passenger buses and provides transport services to various concerns/individuals on a rental basis. Incidentally Sunil Kumar Sharma, Dhanraj Parasmal Sharma’s grandson who currently runs the transport company, was included as accused no. 3 in Income Tax’s money laundering and benami transaction case against the Congress leader.

Shivakumar, who modestly described himself as an “educationist and social worker” in the election affidavit he filed in 2018 as Congress candidate from the Kanakapura assembly seat, officially declared a personal wealth of Rs 619.79 crore – an increase of 188% since the 2013 elections when he had declared Rs 215.06 crore against his name.

His wife, who described herself as a “housewife and landlord”, and his three dependent children declared a combined wealth of Rs 221.58 crore, a whopping increase of 472% since the last election.

His brother D K Suresh, currently a Lok Sabha member from the Bengaluru Rural seat, declared assets worth Rs 338 crores in 2019( up from Rs 85 crore declared in 2014).

The family’s fortune is likely to have further bolstered after his daughter Aishwarya tied the knot with Amartya Hegde, son of late Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha and grandson of former Karnataka CM SM Krishna in 2021. Siddhartha reportedly committed suicide in July 2019 owing to financial distress. After being missing for two days, his body was retrieved from a river near Mangaluru.

Meteoric Rise In State Politics Due To Caste Dynamics And Proximity To S.M Krishna

Shivakumar’s first foray into electoral politics was in the 1985 assembly elections. Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government, fresh from its landslide victory in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, dismissed the then Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde-led Janata Party government. Janata was voted to power only two years back in the 1983 state assembly elections

A little-known Shivakumar was fielded as the Congress candidate from the Sathanur constituency against former Prime Minister H.D Deve Gowda, a powerful leader of the undivided Janata Party and regarded as the number two in the Hedge-led government.

Shivakumar faced defeat in his electoral debut, but Gowda decided to relinquish the Sathanur, choosing to retain his traditional bastion of Holenarasipur (he won from both constituencies).

With Deve Gowda establishing a near stranglehold over the Vokkaliga-dominated politics of Bengaluru and Old Mysuru region, Congress lacked a leader from the community who could take on the might of the Gowdas by matching their money and muscle power. Though Congress had S.M. Krishna in its rank, he was deemed “English Gowda” who lacked the kind of 'nativity' needed to challenge the Vokkaliga patriarch.

Over the next few years, Shivakumar benefited from the image of someone who took on the might of the Gowdas in their own backyard.

In the 1989 state assembly elections that saw Congress regaining power, Shivakumar won as the party candidate from Sathanur. He was briefly made the prison minister in the Congress government led by S Bangarappa.

In the 1994 assembly election, when the Ramakrishna Hegde-Deve Gowda duo propelled the Janata party back to power, Shivakumar narrowly managed to retain the seat, this time fighting as an independent candidate.

It was the 1999 assembly elections that cemented his place as a prominent leader in the already overcrowded Congress leadership landscape. Back as Congress candidate, Shivakumar defeated Deve Gowda’s son and former CM HD Kumaraswamy in the Sathanur seat, marking the beginning of long-standing rivalry. Shivakumar, who was by then seen a protege of Chief Minister S.M Krishna, was inducted as urban development minister in the cabinet.

Many political observers in Karnataka see this as a period of a dramatic upswing in fortunes for Shivakumar in both politics and business.

With Bengaluru business elite in the thrall of suave Krishna, Shivakumar forged a relationship with leading real estate players venturing into residential and commercial properties. In tandem with Cafe Coffee Day, Siddhartha (son-in-law of Krishna), Shivakumar is believed to established several business ventures, and his fortunes soared. Aggregating land parcel for construction of high-rise luxury apartment and office complexes by real estate firms needed a political powerful patron and it is said that Shivakumar played the part during the 1999-2004 period.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka , despite BJP winning bulk of the seats, Shivakumar orchestrated the victory of Congress’ Tejaswini Gowda over former PM Deve Gowda in the Kanakapura Lok Sabha constituency (which is now Bengaluru Rural after delimitation). In the simultaneously held state assembly elections, BJP emerged as the single largest party winnning 79 seats, followed by the Congress with 65 seats and JD(S) with 58 seats. JD(S) extended the support to Congress to form the government. Governor but Deve Gowda extracted his pound of flesh by ensuring that Krishna-Shivakumar duo was kept out from power. Senior Congress leader Dharam Singh was the compromise candidate for the top position.

2016-13 When Shivakumar's Fortunes Dwindled

The period between 2006 and 2013 was the lowest point of the Vokkaliga leader’s political career. With Congress out of power, the Gowda family (in power as an alliance partner with BJP) went all out to marginalise him. Multiple investigations were launched into illegal quarrying by companies associated with him and one associated with his brother Suresh. 

When Congress returned to power in 2013, gaining from the unceremonious exit of BJP leader B.S Yediyurappa from the saffron party, the party’s high command chose Siddaramiah (who joined Congress just a few years back) to lead the government, ignoring Shivakumar’s loyalty and claims. Siddaramaiah did not even include Shivakumar in the cabinet, claiming that his tainted image would damage the party, but he was later inducted as Energy Minister.

Despite BJP sweeping the 2014 Lok Sabha polls nationally and in Karnataka, Shivakumar managed to secure a victory for his brother Suresh from the Bengaluru Rural constituency.

Shivakumar also mired in many controversies during his stint as the state's energy minister. A probe was ordered in to the sanction of solar power projects by during his reign. The ED also questioned Shivakumar's daughter Aishwarya alleged ownership of shares in Adani Green Energy Pvt Limited.

Coffee Day Siddhartha Suicide And Shivakumar

It was speculated that IT raids on Siddhartha were connected to Shivakumar’s cases and had less to do with Siddhartha’s business dealings. According to reports, Shivakumar’s daughter Aishwarya allegedly entered into a deal with CCD and SoulSpace Projects Ltd as a part of money laundering operations. IT officials alleged that the Congress leader had received about ₹20 crores from CCD.

Rumours were rife in Bengaluru that Krishna himself shifted loyalties to BJP as part of a deal to ensure that his son-in-law Siddhartha's business linkage with Shivakumar is not prober further by investigative agencies. However events took a tragic turn as Siddhartha was found dead.

Shivakumar’s supporters alleged that raids by investigative agencies were an act of vengeance by the BJP-led government for organising ‘safe custody’ of 44 Gujarat Congress MLAs in a Bengaluru golf resort linked to him. The party had moved the legislators to Bengaluru, alleging that they were being poached in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha polls in the state, in which Ahmed Patel, senior leader and Sonia Gandhi’s confidant, was fighting a tough battle. Patel went on to win the Rajya Sabha seat, and the high command noticed Shivakumar’s usefulness as a sharp troubleshooter.

Shivakumar also performed a similar ‘protection job’ in 2002 when Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh of the Congress faced a no-confidence motion. The Congress legislators were hosted at the Eagleton Resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

In the 2018 state assembly elections, Congress and JD-S entered into a post-election tie-up to keep BJP out of power despite the saffron party finishing with 105 seats, tantalising close to the majority mark. Shivakumar gave up his long-standing animosity with the Gowda clan and made peace with the family. He even reconciled to a relatively minor role in the Kumaraswamy ministry. He was assigned the responsibility of Major & Medium Irrigation, Kannada & Culture and Information & Public relations.

Shivakumar’s reputation as Congress’s ‘man of last resort’ was however damaged when BJP regained power in Karnataka in 2019 after the ruling JD(S)-Congress coalition government was routed in the Lok Sabha polls. Around 20 Congress and JD-S legislators switched allegiance, and despite a ‘rescue mission’ theatrics he staged outside a luxury hotel in Mumbai, he returned empty-handed.

Shivakumar’s Political Future?

According to seasoned political observers in the state, Shivakumar’s burning ambition is to occupy the chief ministerial position. His supporters claim that he spurned overtures from BJP to switch sides as he believed he would be rendered politically irrelevant in the Lingayat-dominated party. 

The Vokkaliga strongman continues to believe that his best chance for the top job in Karnataka will be through the Congress party.

Will Shivakumar’s aspiration be fulfilled? Given Congress’s electoral strategy will be driven by AHINDA( (minority communities, section of backward classes and Dalits)-led mobilisation and Siddaramaiah continues to be the mascot of such a gameplan, Shivakumar’s ascent to the top job is likely to be a pipedream unless the party command decides to reward loyalty and troubleshooting skills.

Though he attempted to cast his arrest and jailing as a ‘major insult’ to the Vokkaliga community (his followers went on the rampage in parts of the state), he has a limited claim as their undisputed leader of the community given that JD-S continue to wield enormous clout and loyalty among Vokkaligas