N. Dharam Singh - Political Career

Political Career

Dharam Singh began his long innings in politics as an Independent Corporator in the Gulbarga City Municipal Council. In the late 1960s, he joined the Indian National Congress and has remained a staunch loyalist since then, without deserting the party even when it passed through its worst times at different stages. He did not follow in the footsteps of his mentor former Chief minister Devaraj Urs when he broke away from the Congress and floated his own outfit, nor when his close friend and another former Chief minister S. Bangarappa resigned from the party.

He even gave up the Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat of which he was the Member of Parliament to accommodate C.M. Stephen, the then Union Minister in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet in 1980.

Dharam Singh emerged as one of the front-ranking leaders of North Karnataka region, winning from the backward Jewargi Assembly constituency for eight consecutive terms. A sober political leader by all standards, he earned the sobriquet "Ajatha Shatru" (A man without enemies).

Endowed with vast political and at least two decades of administrative experience, Singh has been one of the top leaders of the Congress in Karnataka. He has served as a minister under various Chief ministers such as Devaraj Urs, R. Gundu Rao, S. Bangarappa, M. Veerappa Moily and S. M. Krishna, and has deftly managed diverse portfolios such as Home, Excise, Social Welfare, Urban Development and Revenue

As KPCC President, Singh played a key role in reviving the flagging fortunes of the Congress in Karnataka during the late 1990s. At that time, the Congress' national leadership was headed by Sitaram Kesri, for whom Singh was said to be a favorite.

He lost out to his senior colleague S.M.Krishna in the race to the Chief Minister's post in 1999. Unlike his close friend and colleague Mallikarjun Kharge, Singh did not even throw his hat into the race. He had then, said "If everyone elects me unanimously, I will take up the post. I don't want to engage in competition". Without showing any signs of disappointment, he joined the Krishna ministry and handled the Public Works Department portfolio.

When the 2004 state elections resulted in a hung assembly with no party getting enough seats to form a government, the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) parties decided to come together and form a coalition government to keep the communal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power. Known for his adaptability and friendly nature, Dharam Singh was the unanimous choice of both parties to head the government. He was sworn in as Chief Ministeron 28 May 2004. He was the second leader from Gulbarga to become Chief minister after the late Veerendra Patil. For almost 20 months, he led the fragile coalition through many ups and downs. He was criticised for not being assertive and for allowing the JD(S), which was the junior partner in the coalition to call the shots in the government. He left office on 3 February 2006 after the collapse of the Coalition government formed by the Congress (I) due to a defection in the JD(S) engineered by H.D. Kumaraswamy, who succeeded him as Chief minister leading a new coalition with the BJP.

During the tenure of H.D. Kumaraswamy, he was the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. However, In the 2008 state elections he was defeated by a political lightweight - Doddappagouda Patil Naribol of the BJP by a slim margin of 52 votes.

In Loksabha elections held in May 2009, he contested from Bidar Lok Sabha constituency and emerged victorious against his former colleague Gurupadappa Nagamarpalli of the BJP by a margin of 39,619 votes.