Meet DK Shivakumar, the man who kept Congress flock away from horse-trading

BENGALURU: Karnataka Congress senior leader and strategist DK Shivakumar, is the man responsible for safekeeping the 78 Congress MLAs and its partner JDS together while BJP was allegedly in its full force for horse-trading their MLAs.

When the aggressive BJP was on the hunt for the MLAs, it was 57-year-old blue-eyed boy of former CM S M Krishna, Shivakumar who executed the plan to perfection by holding its flock together.

In an informal chat with Bangalore Mirror, Shivakumar who was entrusted the task of guarding party MLAs for four days said, “On two occasions, I went to media and revealed how the BJP was attempting to split our MLAs even before they could act,” he said, adding that he had come out with instant plans like shifting MLAs, using decoy buses to mislead BJP leaders among others.

According to an Indian Express report, Shivakumar was carrying a suitcase full of clothes. When Siddaramaiah joked about his unusual attire, a smiling DK said, “I could not go home. I had this traditional wear in the suitcase that I have been carrying around for the past few days. I wore it.

It was Shivakumar, who in 2001 assigned the job of holding the flock safe when the late Vilasrao Deshmukh government was in deep crisis.

“I have handled these responsibilities in the past. I did it when Vilasrao Deshmukh was in Maharashtra and there was a crisis. I have taken care of Gujarat MLAs, and I have taken a lot of risk…. My leaders are there, God is there, and justice is there,” he had said earlier, reported The Indian Express.

DK Shivakumar, better known as DKS, is being hailed as the saviour of Congress in Karnataka. Setting aside his differences with HD Deve Gowda and son HD Kumaraswamy, Shivakumar save the post-poll alliance.

One of the richest MLAs of Karnataka has massive Rs 589 crore increases in wealth since 2013.

He was just 29 years old when he contested his first election in 1989.