Karnataka has highest number of living former CMs at nine in South India, Telangana has none

HYDERABAD: Karnataka has the highest number of living former Chief Ministers in the State, Compared to any of the South Indian states, while Telangana has none.

Another South Indian State Goa has seven living former Chief Ministers — Pratap Singh Rane, Churchill Braz Alemao, Ravi S Naik, Luizinho Faleiro, Francisco Cosme Sardinha, Digambar Kamat, Laxmikant Parsekar,

Andhra Pradesh has N Chandrababu Naidu, who was the longest serving Chief Minister of the State, and N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who recently joined the BJP, was the last Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh. In fact, Naidu is a former Chief Minister in the undivided AP and also the truncated AP.

Telangana has the unique distinction of not having a former Chief Minister so far.

Kerala has A K Antony, Oommen Chandy of the Congress and V S Achuthanandan of the CPI-M as the former Chief Ministers.

Tamil Nadu has O Panneerselvam who had served as the Chief Minister on three different occasions, and E Palaniswami — both belong to the AIADMK.

Pondicherry has V Vaithialingam and V Narayanasamy as the former chief ministers.

Now look at the long list of former Chief Minister who are alive in Karnataka.

M Veerappa Moily (Congress) is the senior most former Chief Minister as he became the Chief Minister in 1992. He is succeeded by H D Deve Gowda (Janata Dal). Another living former CM is S M Krishna (Congress).

H D Kumaraswamy of JD (S) served as the Chief Minister twice.

B S Yediyurappa served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka on four different occasions. D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar, Siddaramaiah served as the Chief Ministers.

Now Basavaraj Bommai is the latest to join the bandwagon of living former CMs of Karnataka.

If the Congress makes Siddaramaiah the Chief Minister, he will have eight former CMs alive in the State. If D K Shivakumar gets lucky, he will have nine.