BENGALURU: Karnataka has witnessed five changes of chief ministers in the last decade, including Siddaramaiah, who submitted his resignation on Thursday. While political analysts say the duration of a chief minister’s tenure may not directly impact governance, some believe frequent leadership changes do affect administration.
Since 2016, the state has been led by five chief ministers, including Siddaramaiah’s two terms. Siddaramaiah, who first took oath in 2013, continued as CM till 2018. After the 2018 Assembly elections, HD Kumaraswamy became Chief Minister heading the Congress-JDS coalition government. Following defections that collapsed the coalition, the BJP came to power with BS Yediyurappa as CM in 2019, followed by Basavaraj Bommai in 2021.
Siddaramaiah returned as Chief Minister in 2023 and now DK Shivakumar is likely to succeed him. A senior Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are both positive and negative aspects to frequent leadership changes.
“Every new chief minister brings fresh ideas and may take the state in a different direction. But at the same time, projects and policies initiated by previous governments may not continue,” the leader said. “In recent years, Karnataka has seen several laws introduced by one government and withdrawn by the next.
This happened in a span of one or two years. Textbook lessons have also changed with change in governments and CMs. Every new chief minister usually brings a new team of ministers, who in turn prefer different IAS officers. This will obviously lead to frequent transfers. This impacts administration and may delay implementation of projects,” he added.
However, political scientist Prof Sandeep Shastri said there is no direct link between the tenure of a chief minister and governance. “Since 1999, only two Chief Ministers, SM Krishna and Siddaramaiah, had relatively stable tenures. But a full term does not necessarily guarantee effective governance. There is no direct correlation between the number of years a chief minister serves and the quality of governance,” he said.
