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He has said he would quit politics and hang up his boots thrice — and each time, he’s stayed. In 2013, 2018, and then again in 2023, Siddaramaiah said he would quit politics, but he didn’t. Now he indicates that he is considering 2028 as well, despite making claims that this time he really wants to hang up his boots from active politics. At the age of 77, the term “retirement” plan has started to sound more like an extended political pause than an exit. At the News18 Rising Karnataka conclave, Siddaramaiah dropped a hint that set the tone for the months ahead: “My well-wishers want me to contest in 2028. Let’s see, I haven’t decided yet.” It came at a crucial moment — as murmurs over a mid-term power shift grew louder. With his loyalists pressing for a full five-year term and DK Shivakumar’s camp reminding everyone of the “2.5-year formula,” Siddaramaiah’s words sounded less like indecision and more like a signal. By November 20, he completes 2.5 years in office. The timing couldn’t be sharper. The unwritten deal with Shivakumar reaches its midpoint just as sources in the Congress hint at a cabinet reshuffle around November 15. But party insiders say the real script will unfold only after both leaders meet the high command in Delhi — likely after the Bihar polls.Siddaramaiah’s son, Yathindra, the MLA from Varuna, publicly put his father in an embarrassing position. He said his father was “at the fag end of his career” and that leaders like Satish Jarkiholi should take the AHINDA mantle forward. It embarrassed not just the Chief Minister, but the entire Congress was at a loss of words. Clarifications followed swiftly that Yathindra only meant Jarkiholi was carrying forward the AHINDA ideology. But the damage was done. It was seen as a hint that nobody could ignore. Interestingly, Jarkiholi has long been one of Siddaramaiah’s most loyal lieutenants. When Siddaramaiah quit the Janata Party in 2006, Jarkiholi followed without hesitation. So did another trusted aide, HC Mahadevappa. Even Iqbal Hussain of Ramanagara — a vocal supporter of DK Shivakumar’s CM bid — said Yathindra’s comment was “ill-timed.” The BJP, unsurprisingly, seized the moment to fuel the Congress’s internal fire. Siddaramaiah’s habit of announcing his political retirement — and then walking it back — has almost become a pattern. Yet, the Varuna MLA — now a nine-time legislator — shows no sign of slowing down. In 2018, after losing Chamundeshwari, he announced his retirement again — having said that — in 2023, he went on to become the Leader of Opposition. Before the 2023 Assembly elections, he said this would be his “last election.” Instead, he returned to the top seat, handpicked by the Congress high command, despite an unwritten understanding that he would share power with DK Shivakumar after 2.5 years. Siddaramaiah remains the tallest AHINDA leader in Karnataka. The July 2025 AICC Backward Classes Advisory Committee meeting led by him is indicative of his clout over one of the state’s largest vote blocs in the country. His pet project — the socio-economic and educational census — continues despite resistance, with full backing from the Congress leadership. When this reporter asked him during his election campaign whether he was ready to hang up his boots after the 2023 Assembly elections, he responded, “People in Varuna want me to contest again, but I’ve decided not to. By 2028, I’ll be 82. I won’t have the energy. I would have completed 50 years in Karnataka politics. My health will not permit me.” Recalling how in 1978 he first jumped into politics, he said he became a taluk board member that year. Now Siddaramaiah’s statement that he may consider contesting the 2028 elections may not come as a surprise to those close to him. But it comes at a time when the power tussle between the CM and his deputy has been openly fought, with their supporters split — one section seeking a full term for Siddaramaiah, while the other insists it is time to hand over to DK Shivakumar at the end of 2.5 years. This remark could possibly scuttle chances of a change in guard. During the 2023 Assembly polls, he emerged victorious in Varuna, entering the Assembly for the ninth time. Siddaramaiah, then the sitting Chief Minister, had lost in Chamundeshwari in 2018 but won in Badami, the other constituency he had contested, and went on to serve as Leader of Opposition. There is now talk of Siddaramaiah’s grandson Dhawan Rakesh eyeing political entry. Dhawan, who recently shared photographs with Rahul Gandhi on Instagram, wrote, “Politics has always been a part of the background for me, but meeting someone who constantly faces pushback and still chooses to stand for what he believes in was different.” Dhawan, after meeting Rahul Gandhi, said his steadfastness inspired him. “Meeting such a leader was a unique experience. I conveyed my immense respect for him. As a student now, and as a lawyer in the future, I wish to stand with him and walk alongside him,” he tweeted. Dhawan is the son of Rakesh Siddaramaiah, the Chief Minister’s elder son who passed away in 2016. Rakesh was seen as Siddaramaiah’s political heir and had just begun his journey in politics before his untimely death. After Rakesh, the onus fell on Siddaramaiah’s younger son Yathindra, who contested from Varuna and is now the sitting MLA. Once during an informal interaction with this reporter, when asked whether Siddaramaiah has been grooming Dhawan as his eventual successor, Siddaramaiah said, “He (Dhawan) loves to speak about politics, he argues like a lawyer, and he is very intelligent and very good… let’s see.” In 2018, Siddaramaiah had also declared it would be his last Assembly election — something he had said before in 2013 as well. “I said it on the floor of the House that I will not contest again, but the high command directed me to contest because I had been Chief Minister for five years and was told to take responsibility,” Siddaramaiah said while campaigning in Chamundeshwari, one of the two seats he contested that year. Chamundeshwari is the seat from where he made his debut in the Karnataka Assembly in 1983 as a Lok Dal candidate. Siddaramaiah, who had won the seat five times and lost twice, contested the previous two elections from Varuna, the seat his son contested in 2018. When asked why he chose Chamundeshwari again, he said, “Here I started my political career, so I wanted to contest my last election from the same constituency.” He took charge as Chief Minister in May 2013 and went on to complete a full five-year term — the first CM in 40 years to do so since D Devaraj Urs, also from Mysuru. In the 2018 elections, Siddaramaiah won from Badami but lost from Chamundeshwari. It was a tight contest in Badami, where he defeated BJP’s Sriramulu by a margin of 1,696 votes. In Chamundeshwari, he lost to JD(S)’s GT Deve Gowda by over 36,000 votes. Deve Gowda, who emerged as the “giant killer,” said his victory came from the constant mass contact he maintained with voters, while Siddaramaiah’s last-minute campaign failed to cut through. Chamundeshwari had been Siddaramaiah’s home turf ever since his first election in 1983 until the 2008 delimitation exercise that carved out Varuna. “He returned only to contest again and promised to develop it as a model constituency, which the people did not believe,” said Deve Gowda. Born in 1948 in Siddaramanahundi near Mysuru, Siddaramaiah remains Karnataka’s most enduring political survivor. A Kuruba leader who climbed from humble beginnings to become a two-time Chief Minister, he stands today as the only man after Devaraj Urs to complete a full five-year term twice. For a man who’s announced his political retirement more times than most have held office, Siddaramaiah’s career continues to defy his own deadlines. Each time he says he’s done — he comes back stronger. And this time, as whispers swirl around a possible change of guard, it seems the old warhorse isn’t quite ready to ride into the sunset just yet.
