Yeddyurappa 'Sath Din Ka Sultan'

Bangalore, Nov 19: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader B S Yeddyurappa will popularly be known as 'Sath Din Ka Sultan' (king for seven days) as he quit the Chief Ministership today following withdrawal of support by Janata Dal (Secular).

It was a short lived dream for the 64-year-old Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa who was sworn in as 26th Chief Minister of Karnataka on November 12 with four other BJP ministers.

A champion of farmers. Mr Yeddyurappa had been making all out efffort to enable the BJP come to power in Karnataka, for the first time in South. His dream would have come true effortlessly, had the transfer of power after the 20 month of Chief Ministership of H D Kumaraswamy got over on October three. But it was not destined to be as the JD(S) suspected the secular credentials of the BJP and did not want to part power to the party.

Though JD(S) agreed for 'remarriage' to enable Mr Yedyurappa's dream come true, it ended in a fiasco today with the JD(S) withdrawing support a week after he became the Chief Minister.

Undaunted to obstacles posed against his leadership resulting in imposition of the President rule in the State on October Nine, Mr Yeddyurappa even paraded 129 legislators before the Governor Rameshwar Thakur and presented 124 legislators of BJP and JD(S) before the President Prathiba Patil.

Mr Yeddyurappa shot into limelight when he launched a crusade against injustice done to farmers for over two decades. He entered public life at the age of 29 years. He was jailed during emergency for 45 days at Shimoga and Bellary prisons. He also exposed the cause of bonded labourers and led a team of 1700 bonded labourers in the Shimoga Deputy Commissioner's office demanding release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers in the State.

He became leader of the farming community when he vehemently fought for upholding the rights of Bagar Hukum farmers (Landless people who unauthorisedly cultivate government lands) and prevented Forest Department officials from planting Eucalyptus saplings in these lands.

A tempestuous person by nature, Mr Yeddyurappa entered the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1983. This proved to be a turning point in his public life as shaped his political career and enabled BJP to come to power in the State. He had also been the BJP State President in 1988 and had served as a Secretary at the all India level.

Mr Yeddyurappa had been opposition leader in the assembly when he got elected to the lower house for the fourth time in 1994.

Subsequently he was elected to the Assembly in 2004 elections for the fifth time and functioned as the opposition leader. He was the member of the Legislative Council from February 2000 to 2004.

He played prominent role in 2005 in bringing down Congress led coalition government by pulling out JD(S) for which his party extended support to form the government. But here also luck did not favour him as JD(S) after enjoying power for 20 months failed to transfer power.

During his tenure as Deputy Chief Ministership, who was also holding Finance portfolio, had presented two budgets with a thrust on development and people welfare.

His initiatives, among others, included ban on arrack and sale of lotteries, distribution of farm credit to farmers at four per cent interest, first of its kind in the country, and empowerment of girl children from below poverty line families and distribution of Bicycles to girl students.

UNI