Siddaramaiah, often referred to as Sidda or Siddu, a lecturer who has been holding on to the post of the 16thchief ministerof Karnataka since May 2023, is stepping down, confirmed HK Patil after months of meetings and meet-ups. His number 2, DK Shivakumar, is stepping up as the new CM after taking the ‘blessings’ of the outgoing CM. And with this change in guards, the southern state is once again doing what it does best, changing chief ministers before the term ends.
And before any party jumps in to take potshots at theCongress, let’s put the facts out in the open that this phenomenon is not party-specific. It doesn't matter which party holds power; It doesn't matter whether the mandate was clear or fractured. The chair of Karnataka's CM has, in the past 70 years of its statehood, dethroned nearly every leader who sat in it before their terms ran out officially. Congress's Siddaramaiah, BJP's BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai, JDS's HD Kumaraswamy – the list of those who didn't last the full five years is longer, barring the three who managed to touch the finish line of their term – and interestingly, all three belonged to Congress. The chair of Karnataka's chief minister, it seems so, is less a seat of power and more a countdown clock.
S. Nijalingappa's first stint as Karnataka Chief Minister, from 1956 to 1958, ended like the rest – before time. But he came back in 1962 and this time completed his full term through a period when Congress still had genuine dominance in the state and exited office in May 1968, when he was elevated to the All India Congress Committee national president.
Devaraj Urs started off with a crack code to the CM’s chair. He completed a full five-year term from March 1972 to December 1977. He contested again and won in 1978. Urs, who was known for his land reforms, kept a fractious Congress together through five difficult years in his first term. But even he couldn’t escape the jinx, and his second term fell apart when the Congress split, his faction on one side, Indira Gandhi's Congress (I) on the other. As MLAs drifted to the Gandhi camp, his majority collapsed. He resigned in January 1980, with R. Gundu Rao stepping in to replace him. He never came back.
One note here – Siddaramaiah did break one record – in January 2026, he crossed Devaraj Urs's total days in office across both their terms combined, becoming Karnataka's longest-serving Chief Minister by that measure. But there is a record Urs still holds that nobody has touched. He is the only chief minister in Karnataka's history to complete a full five-year term and then go back to voters and win again. That remains his alone.
His first term ran the full five years, the first Karnataka chief minister to do so since Devaraj Urs, four decades earlier. But, just like Urs, his second term is ending on May 28, 2026, roughly two years before the finish line. The MUDA case — in which the Mysuru Urban Development Authority allegedly allotted fourteen prime housing sites to Siddaramaiah's wife as compensation for land worth far less — dogged his second term from mid-2024, with the governor, Thaawarchand Gehlot sanctioning his prosecution and the Lokayukta registering a case against him. Then came the internal power dynamics. A power-sharing arrangement quietly agreed upon whenCongressformed the government in 2023, which Siddaramaiah spent two years deflecting, finally caught up with him. The high command has acted. DK Shivakumar, who waited with visible patience and controlled ambition, gets the chair today.
But for every Nijalingappa, every Devaraj Urs, everySiddaramaiahwho crossed the line, the list of those who could never close on the finish line is far longer.
The first non-Congress chief minister of Karnataka, Ramakrishna Hegde, took over in January 1983. He resigned on moral grounds in December 1984 after the Janata Party's poor Lok Sabha showing, sought a fresh mandate – and he did win in March 1985 and came back as CM. In August 1988, he resigned over phone-tapping allegations that his government had wiretapped politicians and businessmen. His deputy SR Bommai took over as CM.
Less than nine months. That's how long Bommai lasted. He took charge in August 1988. By April 1989, the Governor had dismissed his government, citing loss of majority following large-scale engineered defections. Bommai challenged the dismissal in the Supreme Court — and while he lost the immediate battle, the case produced the landmark S.R. Bommai v. Union of India judgment that placed lasting constitutional limits on the misuse of Article 356. His tenure lasted eight months. His legal legacy lasted decades.
Came to power after the 1989 elections with a clear Congress majority. Left within ten months — not because of a political crisis, but because of failing health. He was replaced by Bangarappa. Then Veerappa Moily. Three Chief Ministers in a single five-year assembly term. Karnataka was already showing the world who was in charge of its politics — and it wasn't the Chief Ministers.
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