Newsmaker: Karnataka Deputy CM G Parameshwara is finally rewarded, almost

After Kharge, Parameshwara, is the tallest Dalit leader of the Congress in the state

As he stood in front of the majestic Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru a little after 4.30pm on May 23 to take oath as deputy chief minister of Karnataka, it was a moment of vindication for Congress leader G Parameshwara.

After Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha, 66-year-old Parameshwara is his party’s tallest Dalit leader in Karnataka.

In 2013, as the Congress prepared to fight the Assembly elections that it was certain to win because of splits in the Bharatiya Janata Party, the soft-spoken and articulate Parameshwara was considered the frontrunner for the chief minister's post.

The Congress won a comfortable majority, but Parameshwara, then a four-time legislator, lost his Assembly seat of Koratagere. He had won that seat in 2008 after the delimitation of constituencies forced him to shift from his traditional seat of Madhugiri.

As the chief of the Karnataka state unit, Parameshwara had campaigned across the state to ensure his party’s win. But in his own constituency, Parameshwara’s margin of loss was over 18,000. He believed it cost him the chief ministerial chair, and that party colleague and eventual chief minister Siddaramaiah’s Kuruba supporters engineered his defeat in Koratagere. 

Subsequently, Parameshwara was elected to the legislative council and served as a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led government.

In 2018, Parameshwara won the Koratagere seat. In a twist of fate, the Congress failed to win a majority on its own and his rival Siddaramaiah lost his Chamundeshwari seat by a huge margin and struggled to win the Badami seat.

In an interview to Business Standard days before the polling on May 12, Parameshwara had made little secret that he disapproved of Siddaramaiah contesting from two seats. Parameshwara also said Siddaramaiah’s re-election as chief minister, if the Congress were to get the majority, was not a foregone conclusion. He had said the Congress legislature party will elect its leader after the election. 

Siddaramaiah’s confidantes believe Parameshwara, and other rivals in the party contributed to their leader’s defeat. Once the Congress offered the chief minister’s post to Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy, there was little doubt that the articulate Parameshwara will be his deputy. He has said he will resign as Karnataka Congress chief, a post which is now expected to be given to party colleague D K Shivakumar.

Parameshwara hails from an affluent family of Tumkur that runs a chain of educational institutions. He received education at a school run by his father. He has an MSc degree in agriculture from the University of Agriculture Sciences, Bengaluru. In college, Parameshwara was a sprinter. He also has a doctorate in plant physiology from an Australian university.

Parameshwara says a meeting with Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 changed the course of his life. Parameshwara had gone to invite Gandhi for the inauguration of an educational institute that his father and he had set up.

Sensing the potential in him, Gandhi asked him to join the Congress. The same year, Parameshwara contested the Assembly election from Madhugiri reserved constituency and won.

In 1993, Parameshwara was made a minister of state for sericulture in the M Veerappa Moily-led government. To this day, Parameshwara counts Moily as his mentor. On Thursday, Parameshwara visited Moily’s residence in Bengaluru to seek his blessings. “I thank him from the bottom of my heart for his constant guidance and support,” Parameshwara tweeted. 

Parameshwara handled several portfolios during the S M Krishna government from 1999 to 2004. He served as the home minister of the state from 2015 to 2017 but resigned to concentrate on the Congress' election campaign for the assembly polls.

Parameshwara is a practising Buddhist.