India, May 29 -- In 2018, Doddalahalli Kempegowda Shivakumar, showed his crisis management skills when he moved the Congress legislators to a resort in a bid to save the fragile JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy-led alliance government. Though the government fell, DK Shivakumar emerged as Congress's foremost crisis manager.

A year later, after emerging from Delhi's Tihar Jail, where he spent 50 days following his arrest in a money laundering case linked to tax investigations, Shivakumar stood before supporters, visibly emotional, and declared: "My loyalty has been proved." After his release, he repeatedly said he was sent to jail for protecting the party.

Since then, the party has sent him across states to manage crisis. In February 2024, he ...