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S M Krishna, the 'gentleman' politician's journey

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After spending 46 years of his political life as a Congressman, S M Krishna joined the BJP on Wednesday. While he held coveted positions while in the Indian National Congress, S M Krishna's political beginnings were humble and with a lesser-known party. We track the political journey of S M Krishna, the gentleman politician.

S M Krishna

He is 84 years old and began his political journey with the Praja Socialist Party in the year 1962 at the age of 29. A Law graduate and alumnus of Southern Methodist University, Dallas-Texas, S M Krishna managed to win his first election from Maddur. He was contesting against a candidate of the Congress for whom Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had campaigned. His victory registered the first mark of the sway he holds in the region.

In a weird coincidence, Praja Socialist Party, S M Krishna's political launchpad is now an alliance partner of the BJP-led NDA. S M Krishna represented the Madya parliamentary constituency in the fouth, fifth, seventh and the eighth Lok Sabha from the Praja Socialist Party.

Entry into Congress

S M Krishna was instrumental in bringing the members of Praja Socialist party and Congress together and joined the Congress under Indira Gandhi's leadership. Between 1983 and 1985 he served as a minister under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. S M Krishna was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1996 as well as 2006 and was a member of the Karnataka legislative assembly and council multiple times.

Various posts that S M Krishna held

Apart from holding the office of the Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1999 to 2004, S M Krishna had served as Speaker of the Karnataka assembly between 1989 and 1992. He also functioned as the deputy chief minister of Karnataka during the period.

He held the post of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president in 1999 and led the party to victory in the assembly polls that year.

On December 12, 2004, S M Krishna was appointed Governor of Maharashtra, a post he held until March 5, 2008. His resignation from the Governor's post was said to be an attempt to make a comeback to Karnataka politics.

Krishna, however, became a member of the Rajya Sabha and subsequently took the oath of office as Union Cabinet Minister of External Affairs in the Council of Ministers under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 22 May 2009. He resigned from the post on 26 October 2012 once again hoping to return to Karnataka politics.

Krishna, the BJP man

On January 20, 2017, however, S M Krishna resigned from the Congress accusing the party of sidelining leaders like him. he claimed that the party only needed managers and not leaders. He joined the BJP on March 22, a week later than initially scheduled. S M Krishna, with his entry into the BJP, once again hopes to return to Karnataka politics.

S M Krishna is credited with introducing reforms in electricity boards in Karnataka and digitisation of land records in the state. Senior Karnataka Congress leaders like D K Shivakumar owe their political victories to S M Krishna. The vokkaliga strongman, the BJP hopes, will help them woo the community ahead of the 2018 assembly polls in Karnataka.

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