Former chief minister of Karnataka Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, widely credited with transforming Bengaluru into the Silicon Valley of India, passed away in Bengaluru early Tuesday at the age of 92. The veteran politician also served as the Union Minister of External Affairs and Governor of Maharashtra.
Krishna who had been in and out of hospital over the last few months due to age-related illness breathed his last at around 2.30 am Tuesday. After a political career spanning across six decades, he announced retirement from active politics in January last year. In 2023, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour.
Krishna is survived by his wife Prema and two daughters Shambhavi and Malavika. Born in Somanahalli in Karnataka’s Mandya district on May 1, 1932, Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna started his career in electoral politics in 1962 by winning the Maddur assembly seat as an independent. He was then associated with the Praja Socialist Party before joining the Congress.
A law graduate, Krishna studied in the US graduating from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and The George Washington University Law School in Washington DC, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
Soon after returning from the United States, Krishna began his career in electoral politics and became an important part of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). He was appointed as the chief minister after Congress won the Karnataka Assembly election in 1999.
Before joining the saffron party in 2017, he was one of the tallest Congress leaders in the southern region. He later joined the BJP, ending his nearly 50-year-long association with the Congress. He announced his resignation from the Congress in January 2017, saying the party was in a “state of confusion” on whether it needed mass leaders or not.
Krishna served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from December 1989 to January 1993. He was also a member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha several times between 1971 and 2014.
Krishna was a member of both the Karnataka Assembly and Council and also served as Deputy Chief Minister (1993 to 1994). He was Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president ahead of the 1999 assembly polls in which the party won and he became the chief minister. He was the 16th Chief Minister of Karnataka from October 11, 1999, to May 28, 2004, (from Congress).
