Bengaluru, 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 was sent to Himachal Pradesh to prevent fall of Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government after six Congress MLAs voted against the party in nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who lost the Rajya Sabha poll. Shivakumar was the party's special observer for recently concluded Assam assembly polls as well as 2023 Madhya Pradesh assembly polls. On Thursday, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah declared Shivakumar would be the next CM before resigning. Unlike Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar's journey to the CM's office has been through the party organisation and gaining confidence of the party high command. For Siddaramaiah, it was through ideological positioning and building a vote base of backwards. "DK's rise shows that the party has rewarded him for his organisational and crisis management skills," a senior Karnataka Congress leader said. "The real test to emerge as a mass leader will start now," the leader said. Born in Kanakapura, Shivakumar entered politics through Congress in the old Mysuru region before winning his first assembly poll from Sathanur in 1989. Over successive elections, he consolidated his standing in the Vokkaliga (his caste) belt of southern Karnataka while steadily expanding his role inside the party machinery. His move to Bengaluru for higher studies became an important turning point in his political life. Shivakumar studied at National College in Basavanagudi, where he completed a BA degree and became active in the National Students' Union of India (NSUI)....