HD Kumaraswamy sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka

Newly Sworn-in Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy being presented a bouquet by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee as AP CM Chandrababu Naidu looks on during the swearing-in ceremony of JD(S)-Congress coalition Karnataka government in Bengaluru. Pic/PTI

"I will be the king and not the kingmaker," H D Kumaraswamy had said in the run up to the Karnataka polls. His words proved prophetic as the 58-year-old Vokkaliga leader on Wednesday wore the crown despite his JD(S) finishing a poor third in the electoral battlefield. On the margins of Karnataka politics for a decade, Kumaraswamy, the third son of JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, was widely tipped to play a supporting role in government formation, but nobody gave him even an outside chance of landing the chief minister's chair.

As the counting of votes progressed on May 15, and it became clear that there would be no straight winner in the three-horse race for power, fate smiled on Kumaraswamy. A badly bruised Congress, which failed to form its governments in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya, moved in swiftly and declared it would unconditionally prop up a JD(S) government despite the party having only 37 MLAs, less than half the Congress's strength of 78.

Kumaraswamy quickly lapped up the opportunity and staked claim to form the government. Governor Vajubhai Vala, however, swore-in BJP's B S Yeddyurappa to form the government, as the leader of the single largest party. Vala's decision could only delay Kumaraswamy's ascension to the Karnataka throne, as Yeddyurappa, facing an imminent defeat during the trust vote, resigned within three days.

By a quirk of fate, 'Kumaranna', who served as the chief minister for 20 months in 2006-07 at the head of a JD(S)-BJP government, has been catapulted to the forefront of efforts for cobbling together an anti-BJP front.