The hung assembly thrown by Karnataka voters is heading towards a surprise result. While Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to emerge as the single largest party, the poll calculations indicate that Janata Dal-Secular's HD Kumaraswamy may, after all, emerge as the 'king' and not 'kingmaker'.
By 3 pm, BJP was leading on 108 seats, four short of a majority, while Congress was ahead on 73 and JD(S) was leading on 40. This puts JDS in unique indispensable position to control the poll verdict in Karnataka. Catch minute-to-minute updates on Karnataka Polls Verdict live on India TV
Having accepted its defeat in the polls early on, Congress has made one last attempt to keep BJP and its allies out of 21st state. Congress has reportedly given an unconditional support to JD(S) to form the government in the state. That entails that Siddaramaiah will give up his chief minister's office to HD Kumaraswamy.
Also read | Karnataka Election Results 2018 LIVE: Congress-JD(S) to meet Governor even as BJP emerges as single largest party
Here is all you need to know about the possible CM of Karnataka HD Kumaraswamy
Born on December 19, 1959, HD Kumaraswamy is the youngest son of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.His full name is Haradanahalli Deve Gowda Kumaraswamy popularly known as “KumarAnna” by his friends and followers.
He was an eminent film producer, distributor and exhibitor of the Kannad film industry and produced hit films like Ghalate Aliyandru, Suryavamsha, Premotsava and the recent Chandra Chakori.
His first film was released in 2000. In 2002 he was elected as the President of the Karnataka Cinema Theatre Owners Association. He is the owner of a cinema theatre at Holenarasipura.On 13th March 1986 he married Anita at Palace Grounds, Bangalore and they have a son, Nikhil.
In 1996, when his father was the prime minister, HD Kumaraswamy won the Lok Sabha seat of Kanakapura, but he lost the seat in 1998 after his father’s regime was over.
Another disappointment in his career was in 1999 when he lost the Sathanur Assembly seat to his rival D K Shivakumar. Whereas in 2004 he was victorious from the Ramanagaram Assembly seat but not included in the ministry.
A great leap in his political career was when he was selected as the Working President of Janata Dal(Secular) party. Finally he took advantage of the discontent among the party members and united forty-two MLAs of the Janata Dal (Secular) to form the government with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).
Kumaraswamy became Chief Minister of Karnataka on February 3, 2006. As per Power-sharing agreement Kumaraswamy supposed to transfer the power to BJP on October 3, 2007, but HDKumaraswamy refused to transfer the power to BJP. Finally Kumaraswamy tendered his resignation to Governor Raameshwar Thakur.
From October 9, Karnataka was put under President Rule till November 8, 2007. In 2008 Assembly elections, Kumaraswamy contested and won from Ramanagaram by defeating nearest rival candidate by more than 40000 votes, and succeeded getting support from only 28 JDS MLAs.
HD Kumaraswamy is also President of the Karnataka State Unit of the Janata Dhal (Secular) since 2009. HD Kumarswamy became more popular to people of Karnataka especially to rurala area people by Janatha Darshana and Grama Vaastavya programmes.