Four-time CM who never completed his 5-year term even once!

Team Udayavani, Jul 26, 2021, 1:27 PM IST

Bengaluru: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa broke down on Monday, July 26 in the state assembly and announced his resignation, ending weeks of speculation raised by unrelenting calls for his removal by a section of the BJP in the state.

Yediyurappa announced his resignation in a tearful speech in which he spoke about being tested constantly in the last two years of his fourth term of power.

The announcement was widely anticipated but Yediyurappa kept everyone guessing till yesterday (July 25).

Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa, born 27 February 1943 is often referred to by his initials, BSY. He is the only politician from the BJP party who served as the chief minister of Karnataka for four terms. However, he never got to serve for 5 full years.

Yediyurappa is the only Chief Minister in Karnataka who held the post only for three days, from 17/05/2018 to 19/05/2018.

Yediyurappa took oath as the chief minister for the first time on 13/11/2007, however, he was forced to resign just a few days later on 19/11/2007.

In 2018 Yediyurappa became the chief minister again after leading BJP to a victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections, but in 2011, he resigned after being indicted over a corruption case; he was acquitted in 2016.

Later owing to alleged ill-treatment meted out to Yediyurappa by the BJP High Command, he left BJP and formed his own party, the Karnataka Janata Paksha.

In 2014 he merged his party with the BJP and was subsequently elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from the Shimoga constituency, which he quit after being elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in May 2018 state elections.

On 17 May 2018, he was sworn in as the chief minister for the third time. However, he resigned just two days after taking office as he was unable to get majority support in the Assembly, after which JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy took oath as the chief minister.

After the government of Kumaraswamy lost its majority in July 2019 with the resignation of 17 MLAs, he took an oath as the chief minister and proved his majority again, and started his fourth term which will be ending today after two full years.

Yediyurappa was born on 27 February 1943 in a village called Bookanakere in K.R.Pet taluk of Mandya district to Siddalingappa and Puttathayamma. He was named after the presiding deity of a Shaivite temple built by the great saint Siddalingeshwara at Yediyur in Tumkuru district. His mother died when he was four.

BSY completed his Pre-University College education from Government college, Mandya (Mysore University)- 1960–61.

In 1965, he was appointed as a first-division clerk in the social welfare department but he quit the job and moved on to Shikaripura where he joined as a clerk at Veerabhadra Shastri’s Shankara rice mill.

In 1967, Yediyurappa married Mythradevi, daughter of the rice mill owner, he later set up a hardware shop in Shimoga. BSY has two sons, Raghavendra, B.Y Vijayendra, and three daughters, Arunadevi, Padmavati, and Umadevi. In 2004, his wife died after falling into a sump while drawing water.

Having been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from his college days, Yediyurappa’s public service began when he was appointed as Karyavaha (Secretary) of the Sangh’s Shikaripur unit in 1970.

He was first elected to the lower house of the Karnataka Legislature in 1983 and has since represented the Shikaripura constituency six times. He has been a member of the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Legislative Assemblies (lower house) of Karnataka.

Following the 1994 state assembly elections, he became the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. In 1999, he lost the elections but was nominated by the BJP to become a member of the legislative council (upper house) of Karnataka. Again, he was re-elected in 2004 and became the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly during the chief ministership of Dharam Singh.

In 2007, he changed the spelling of his name to Yeddyurappa from the earlier Yediyurappa following the advice of his astrologers, to change back again to Yediyurappa before the oath-taking ceremony on 26 July 2019.