Rivalry with Siddaramaiah, succession drama: DK Shivakumar's biography to hit the stands in mid-July

New Delhi: As D K Shivakumar is all set to play a new role in Karnataka, a biography of the Congress leader will hit the stands in mid-July with details of his “fierce rivalry” with outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the backroom drama behind his ascension to the top post in the state.

Senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai’s book ‘Congress’s Crisis Manager, Karnataka’s Kingmaker’ will track Shivakumar’s rise as a politician of heft, from a student leader to someone to look up to for dealing with crisis in the party.

“Writing about living politicians is hazardous and challenging yet richly rewarding. It enhances public discourses,” Kidwai told DH about the upcoming book being published by Hachette India. The book has been a work in progress for the past two years, he said.

Asked why he chose Shivakumar to write about, Kidwai said the Karnataka leader is one leader who has evoked pan-India interest, as he is considered a crisis manager. One saw the role he played in Ahmed Patel’s Rajya Sabha election as also in Maharashtra among other instances, he said.

“There is a lot of curiosity about him,” he said.

The book will provide details of how he missed a berth in the government in the 1990s, how he was kidnapped by a rival after he won a college election, about the ‘Yezdi’ he used to ride during college days and how he became close to Rajiv Gandhi and with the Gandhi family.

The book will also explain the “contradiction at his core – strongman and strategist, temple devotee and Bengaluru's moderniser”.

According to the publisher, Kidwai charts the “extraordinary rise of one of India's most watched – and most relentless – politicians known as ‘Kanakapura Bande’ (the Rock of Kanakapura).