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Lingayat and Vokkaliga are the two communities that have dominated Karnataka politics for decades. Though included in the other backward class category in the current reservation system, the two communities have always had a distinctive edge in the state’s power corridors as their voting pattern is not as largely scattered like other castes in this category.
The state has witnessed 23 chief ministers so far and, of these, 16 have been from Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities. The figure itself talks about the dominance of the two communities in state politics, particularly the Lingayat community, which has given nine CMs to the state after its reorganisation in 1956.
Since Independence in 1947, India has had two Karnataka states with different geographical limits: the first was in the form of Mysore state till 1956. Confined to the old Mysore kingdom, it was a much smaller province with Bengaluru as its main city. Concentrated in the southern Karnataka of today, it was dominated by Vokkaligas.
The next Karnataka, the one that exists today, came into existence in 1956 but was known as Mysore till 1973. The Kannada-speaking areas from five states along the Mysore region were reorganised under a much larger province under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, with the Lingayat community becoming its single largest voter block.
While the Congress dominated state politics till 1983, the Janata Party formed the first non-Congress government in the same year followed by a Janata Dal government in 1994. The BJP’s emergence began in 2008.
Lingayat-Vokkaliga CMs
The first three CMs of the state till 1956, were Vokkaliga leaders from the Congress. Mysore’s first CM, K Chengalaraya Redyy, was sworn in on October 25, 1947. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
Being in office for four years and five months, he was replaced by Kengal Hanumanthaiah on March 30, 1952. He was one of the most vocal voices to establish an enlarged Karnataka state. The third CM, Kadidal Manjappa, was in office for only 74 days in 1956 – the year the state’s reorganisation took place.
The enlarged state had the Lingayat community as the single and most powerful voting bloc. Dominant in northern and central Karnataka, the next four CMs till 1971, came from this community. They were all from the Congress.
S Nijalingappa became CM on November 1, 1956. A member of the Constituent Assembly, he was a freedom fighter and had always advocated for the formation of a larger Kannada-speaking state. His first term lasted for just a year and six months but the second one went on for more than five years, from June 1962 to May 1968. He was in office for five years and 11 months, thus becoming the first CM to complete five years. When the Congress expelled then prime minister Indira Gandhi in November 1969, Nijalingappa was the party’s national president.
BD Jatti, who later became the vice-president, was in office from March 1958 to March 1962, followed by SR Kanthi, who was CM for only 99 days and was replaced by Nijalingappa for a second tenure in June 1962.
After Nijalingappa, Veerendra Patil became CM on May 29, 1968. His first term lasted for two years and 19 months. Karnataka saw the President’s Rule for a year after while Patil’s second term came after 18 years in 1989, but came to a quick and unceremonious end.
Party factionalism in the state unit and communal riots pushed Rajiv Gandhi to sack him from the office of the CM. Patil was seen as Nijalingappa’s successor and his removal alienated the once-loyal Lingayats away from the Congress, a voter base that has since been nurtured and promoted by the BJP.
D Devaraj Urs of the Congress replaced Patil in March 1972 becoming the first non-Lingayat and non-Vokkaliga CM. He, in turn, was replaced by the first Brahmin CM of the state, R Gundu Rao, from the Congress in 1980. Karnataka got its first non-Congress government in 1983. Janata Party’s Ramakrishna Hegde, a Brahmin leader, remained in the CM office till 1988. His term was followed by Janata Party Lingayat leader SR Bommai, father of present CM Basavaraj Bommai, till 1989.
The state got its next Vokkaliga CM in 1994. The Janata Dal’s HD Deve Gowda took charge on December 11, 1994, and vacated the office on May 31, 1996, with his elevation as PM. His replacement was JH Patel, a Janata Dal Lingayat leader, who was the CM from May 1996 to October 1999.
The Congress won the next election in the state and replaced the Lingayat CM with a Vokkaliga leader – SM Krishna, who was in office from October 1999 to May 2004. He was replaced by another Congress leader N Dharam Singh, who was from the OBC (other backward class) category.
Singh was replaced by HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (Secular). A Vokkaliga leader and the son of former CM HD Deve Gowda, he was in office for a year and eight months from February 3, 2006, to October 8, 2007, during his first chief ministerial term.
After the President’s Rule of 36 days, the next five years saw the BJP in the power corridors with three CMs – two from the Lingayat community and one Vokkaliga leader. BS Yediyurappa (BSY) became the first BJP CM of the state but was in office for only eight days, between November 12 and 17, 2007. It was followed by five months of President’s Rule. He returned to the CM’s office on May 30, 2008 and, this time, his term lasted for three years and two months. He was in office till August 4, 2011, before he resigned over corruption allegations.
Yediyurappa was replaced by Vokkaliga leader DV Sadananda Gowda, who was in office from August 2011 to July 2012. He was replaced by Lingayat BJP leader Jagadish Shettar, who was CM till May 2013. Siddaramaiah of the Congress replaced Shettar after the 2013 assembly elections. An OBC leader, Siddaramaiah ruled the state till 2018.
In the next assembly election in 2018, the BJP emerged as the largest party but could not get majority numbers in the assembly. BSY chose to form the government but was in the CM’s office for only seven days as he could not get the required numbers to prove majority.
A coalition government of the JD(S) and Congress was then formed with Vokkaliga leader Kumaraswamy’s second term as CM. The coalition government collapsed in July 2019 as 15 rebel MLAs resigned and the government lost a trust vote.
The BJP formed the next government under Yediyurappa, who had to resign after two years on July 26, 2021. The reason given for his resignation was ill health and advancing age but party factionalism and rising dissidence against his working style cannot be ruled out. He was replaced by another Lingayat leader from the BJP, Basavaraj Bommai, who assumed office on July 28, 2021.
Non-Lingayat, non-Vokkaliga OBC CMs
In 1972, the state got its first CM from the backward caste. Congress’ D Devaraj Urs, who renamed the Mysore state as Karnataka in 1973, was from the Kshatriya caste. He was from the Arasu community, a subcaste of the Wodeyar maharajas of Mysore. When he became CM, he was thus a forward caste leader. The Arasu community was given backward class reservation in 1977 but was later dropped from the OBC list. They were finally given the backward class 2A reservation in January 2012.
He was the first leader in the state to champion electoral social engineering, effectively using the combination of OBCs, Dalits and minorities to win elections – an engineering later followed by Siddaramaiah. He was the second CM of the state to complete five years after Nijalingappa, remaining in office from March 1972 to December 1977. He again returned as CM after a two-month President’s Rule but his tenure lasted only for a year and 10 months. He was also the first CM to be elected for a second consecutive term.
S Bangarappa, again a Congress leader, was the second OBC CM of the state and came from a humble background. Hailing from the backward Ediga community, he can be said to be the first OBC CM from a “real” backward community. Edigas are traditionally involved in toddy tapping. He was in office from October 1990 to November 1992.
Bangarappa was replaced by another OBC leader of the Congress, M Veerappa Moily. He was an eminent lawyer and the CM for two years till December 1994. From the Devadiga community, he emerged as a prominent political figure in state and national politics. Members of the Devadiga community are involved in agriculture, besides their association with temple work and music.
The state’s fourth OBC CM was a Rajput Congress leader, N Dharam Singh. Rajputs, though counted as upper castes in many states, get OBC reservation in Karnataka. He was in the CM chair from May 2004 to February 2006. Popularly known as Ajatashatru, with very few political enemies in his five-decade long political career, he headed an alliance government of Congress and JD(S).
The fifth OBC CM of the state, Siddaramaiah, was from the Kuruba community that is estimated to be around 7 percent of the state’s population and are traditionally involved in sheep and goat rearing. The Congress fought the 2013 assembly elections under his leadership and, like Urs, Siddaramaiah strategically used the ‘Dalit-OBC- minority’ factor as an effective tool in his campaign. Being a CM from May 2013 to May 2018, he became the third CM of the state to complete five years in office.
Two Brahmin CMs
The state got its first Brahmin CM in 1980. R Gundu Rao of the Congress became the state’s youngest CM at 43. Considered an Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi favourite, he was chosen over Urs. It is said his working style and poor governance was behind the Congress’ loss in the 1983 assembly elections.
This Brahmin CM was replaced by another Brahmin CM with the Janata Party’s Ramakrishna Hegde taking oath on January 10, 1983. Known as an efficient administrator, his five years as the state’s CM till August 1988 were split in three different terms. A Congress leader earlier, he went on to become the first non-Congress CM of the state. Hegde is also the second CM of the state after Urs to retain power in the subsequent election and he did it twice – first in 1985 and then in 1986.
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