Siddaramaiah was pipped by J H Patel in whose Cabinet he was Deputy Chief Minister.
Both under Deve Gowda and Patel, he served as Finance Minister.
Siddaramaiah, who had grown to become a mass leader, has the distinction of presenting as many as seven state budgets as Finance Minister.
His friends say he has a somewhat "over-powering" personality and remains steadfast in his goals.
He edged out veteran Congress leader and Union Labour and Employment Minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge in a straight contest in last week's Congress Legislature Party meeting.
A product of 'Janatha Pariwar', influenced as he was by socialism advocated by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, he bade adieu to his profession as an advocate to pursue political career.
Making his debut in the Assembly in 1983, elected from Chamundeshwari constituency in Mysore on a Lok Dal party ticket, he later joined the ruling erstwhile Janata Party.
He was the first Chairman of 'Kannada Kavalu Samiti', a watchdog committee which had the mandate to supervise the implementation of Kannada as official language formed during Ramakrishna Hegde's chief ministership. Later he became Sericulture Minister.
In the mid-term elections two years later, he was re-elected and served as Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services in the Hegde government.
However, Siddaramaiah tasted defeat in the 1989 and 1999 Assembly elections. He was Chairman of the KPCC Publicity committee of Elections in 2008.
Born on August 12, 1948 at Siddaramanahundi, a village in Mysore district, Siddaramaiah graduated from Mysore University with B.Sc. degree and later did his Law degree from the same University and pursued it as a profession for some time.
Siddaramaiah is married to Parvati and the couple has two sons.
