Bengaluru: Whenever he was asked about his chances of becoming chief minister, one line DK Shivakumar often repeated over the past three years was: “Efforts may fail, but not prayers.” Shivakumar’s long wait, marked by years of temple visits and spiritual outreach, may finally culminate in the top post — if Congress goes through with its plan of a CM switch.
Although Shivakumar played a key role in Congress’ victory in 2023, party brass eventually chose Siddaramaiah as CM while installing Shivakumar as his deputy and retaining him as KPCC president. Since then, speculation over a rotational CM arrangement has persisted, although Shivakumar has largely refused to speak about it in public.
Especially in the past couple of years, Shivakumar has stepped up visits to prominent shrines across Karnataka and elsewhere. Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he toured temples across Dakshina Kannada district and Sringeri before launching Congress’ campaign, describing the electoral battle as a “Dharma Yuddha”.
After Congress returned to helm in 2023, he expanded his religious outreach beyond the state. He visited Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain and participated in the famed Bhasma Aarti, asserting: “Hindutva, temples and gods are not the property of any political party.” Before reaching Ujjain, he had offered prayers at Maa Pitambara Peeth temple in Datia, Madhya Pradesh. His repeated visits to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, especially when discussions on the CM issue intensified, also drew political attention. In May this year, amid renewed buzz over an alleged “2.5-year power-sharing agreement” with Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar visited the Shaneswaran temple at Karaikal in Puducherry, the Arulmigu Subramaniya Swamy temple in Tiruchendur in Tamil Nadu and later Tirupati.
His visit to Kamakhya temple in Guwahati ahead of elections there this year further added to the political narrative surrounding his ambitions. After offering prayers, Shivakumar said he had sought blessings from “Maa Kamakhya” for “strength and prosperity”.
However, his religious positioning has triggered debate within Congress. In February last year, he attended Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s Maha Shivaratri celebrations at the Isha Foundation in Coimbatore alongside Union home minister Amit Shah. He described the event as “spiritually uplifting” but drew criticism from sections within Congress, with some objecting to him sharing the stage with Shah and participating in an event linked to Sadhguru, whom critics accuse of being ideologically close to RSS.
He again courted controversy in August 2025 when he sang a few lines from the RSS prayer “Namaste Sada Vatsale Matrubhoome” during proceedings in the Karnataka assembly. BJP MLAs responded by thumping desks, while Congress legislators looked askance. He later apologised to party colleagues and reiterated his loyalty to Congress and the Gandhi family.
Shivakumar’s journey towards the chief minister’s office has stretched nearly two decades. From his beginnings as a grassroots Congress organiser in Kanakapura, he steadily emerged as one of the party’s most influential members through organisational control, political resilience and proximity to the Gandhi family. He has repeatedly said he faced legal troubles and imprisonment because of his role as a troubleshooter for Congress during key political crises, including Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat in 2017.
