Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is all set to break the record of late former CM Ramakrishna Hegde by presenting his 14th State Budget on July 7.
The undivided Mysuru district, which comprised of the present Mysuru, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts, has so far given four finance ministers to Karnataka, who have presented a total of 31 budgets.
Siddaramaiah, who also holds the Finance portfolio, presented six budgets in a row as chief minister from 2013 to 2018. However, the budget for 2018-19, presented on February 16, 2018, was not a full-fledged one, but a vote-on-account budget in view of the 2018 Assembly elections. Now, as he is the CM again, it is expected that he will be presenting five or six more budgets.
Earlier, Siddaramaiah presented seven budgets as deputy chief minister — in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government from 2005 to 07; and in the then JD government from 1995-2000. He has presented the budget under three chief ministers — twice under H D Deve Gowda in 1995 and 1996 and thrice under J H Patel in 1997, 1998 and 1999. and two more times N Dharam Singh in 2005 and 2006.
Siddaramaiah was the second CM in Karnataka to complete a five-year term (2013-2018) — 40 years after Devaraj Urs (1972-78). He is also expected to complete a full term, which would make him the only CM in Karnataka history to achieve this feat.
Other leaders from the undivided Mysuru district who have presented a considerable number of budgets are B S Yeddiyurappa, S M Krishna and T Mariappa. H D Kumaraswamy of Hassan district in the Mysuru region also presented two budgets in 2018 and 2019.
A native of Bookanakere, KR Pet taluk in Mandya district, Yeddiyurappa presented eight budgets as deputy chief minister and finance minister under chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and as chief minister himself.
Krishna, a native of Somanahalli in Maddur taluk of Mandya district, presented five budgets as chief minister and finance minister. Although Krishna served as state minister for finance in the Union government, he did not serve as finance minister under any other CM.
T Mariappa, a native of Beereswarapura in Nagamangala taluk of Mandya district also presented five budgets under chief minister S Nijalingappa and B D Jatti. Although ‘T’ in his name stands for Tigali a village near Ooty and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, his grandfather Marigowda migrated to Beereswarapura, then known as Kallanakere in Nagamangala taluk. Thus three natives of Mandya district, all put together, have presented a total of 18 budgets, so far.
The national record seems to be in the name of Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, who has presented 18 budgets in his state of Gujarat. However, if Siddaramaiah is able to present the vote-on-account budget in 2027, he might surpass Vala’s record.
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