Shivakumar started his political career in the early 1980s as a student leader and gradually rose through the ranks of the Congress party. He won his first election in 1989 when he was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the Sathanur constituency in the Mysuru district. He was just 27 years old at the time and contested the election on a Congress ticket. Shivakumar went on to win re-election from the same constituency in the subsequent assembly elections in 1994, 1999 and 2004. He won from
Kanakapura constituency in 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2023. Just before his election to the
Rajya Sabha in 2017 from
Gujarat, he assisted his party leadership to move 42 Gujarat Congress MLAs into his resort in Bengaluru to avoid them moving to another political party. Subsequently, this helped
Ahmed Patel to win the election. He is credited with playing a critical role in the formation of the
coalition government of
Indian National Congress and
Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka following the
2018 election. He is also a close confidante of party leaders
Rahul Gandhi and
Sonia Gandhi. Shivakumar is among the richest politicians in India. While filing his nomination for election in 2018, he declared total assets of 840 crore. On 2 July 2020, Shivakumar officially took charge as Karnataka PCC president succeeding
Dinesh Gundu Rao. On 20 May 2023, Shivakumar became the
Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka following the victory of the Congress party in the
2023 election.
Positions held ==Electoral statistics==