Eight-time legislator D.K. Shivakumar was sworn in on June 3 as the 34th Chief Minister of Karnataka (a southern Indian state), succeeding Siddaramaiah, who resigned last week at the direction of the Congress party's central leadership following a prolonged internal power struggle. The 64-year-old Shivakumar, a senior Congress figure from the influential Vokkaliga community, is widely seen as a strategic choice ahead of the 2028 state assembly elections and the 2029 national polls. He now faces the immediate challenges of forming a balanced cabinet, managing loyalists of his predecessor, and preserving the broad social coalition that has underpinned Congress's electoral base in the state.