Yeddyurappa was born on 27 February 1943 in the village of Bookanakere in Mandya district in the state of Karnataka; at that time, his name was spelled “Yeddiyurappa”. His father Siddalingappa and mother Puttathayamma belonged to the Lingayat community. He was named after the presiding deity of a Shaivite temple built by Siddalingeshwara at Yediyur in Tumkur district of Karnataka. His mother died when he was four. He completed his education with a degree in Bachelor of Arts.
In 1965, he was appointed first-division clerk in the social welfare department but instead shifted to Shikaripur where he joined as a clerk at Veerabhadra Shastri’s Shankar rice mill. In 1967, Yeddyurappa married Mythradevi, the daughter of the rice mill owner. He later set up a hardware shop in Shimoga. Yeddyurappa has two sons, Raghavendra and Vijayendra and three daughters, Arunadevi, Padmavati and Umadevi. In 2004, his wife died after falling into and drowning in a nearby well.
Yeddyurappa’s stint in public life began when he was appointed secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Shikaripur unit in 1970. In 1972, he was elected President of the Taluk unit of the Jan Sangh. In 1975, he was elected President of the Town Municipality of Shikaripur. He was imprisoned during the Emergency in India between 1975 and 1977 and lodged in the Bellary and Shimoga jails. In 1980, he was appointed President of the Shikaripur taluk unit of the BJP and he later went on to become the president of BJP’s Shimoga district unit in 1985. In 1988, he became the President of the BJP unit of the state of Karnataka. He was first elected to the lower house of Karnataka Legislature in 1983 and has since represented the Shikaripur constituency six times. He has been a member of the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Legislative Assemblies (lower house) of Karnataka. In the Tenth Assembly, he was chosen Leader of Opposition. In 1999, he lost the elections but was nominated by the BJP to become a member of the legislative council (upper house) of Karnataka.
He rose to prominence when he helped Janata Dal (Secular) party’s H. D. Kumaraswamy to bring down the coalition government of Dharam Singh. Kumaraswamy formed the government with the help of the BJP in Karnataka headed by Yeddyurappa. A deal was struck between the JD(S) and BJP, which specified that H. D. Kumaraswamy would be the Chief Minister for the first 20 months, after which Yeddyurappa would become the Chief Minister for the remaining 20 months of the current tenure of the Legislature. Yeddyurappa was nominated as the Deputy Chief Minister as well as the finance minister in Kumaraswamy’s Government.
However in October 2007, when Yeddyurappa’s turn of becoming the Chief Minister was supposed to start, Kumaraswamy refused to resign from the post of the Chief Minister. This forced Yeddyurappa and all of the ministers from his party to resign and on 5 October, he met the governor and formally withdrew the BJP’s support from the government. Karnataka was put under President’s rule which was revoked on 7 November. During the period of the President’s rule, the JD(S) and the BJP decided to bury their differences and this paved the way for Yeddyurappa to become the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the 25th Chief Minister of Karnataka on 12 November 2007. However, JD(S) refused to support his government over disagreement on sharing of ministries which made him resign from his post on 19 November 2007.
In Karnataka’s 2008 Assembly elections, Yeddyurappa contested from Shikaripura against the Samajwadi Party’s S. Bangarappa, another ex-Chief Minister. The Indian National Congress and JD(S) did not field a candidate in the constituency and backed Bangarappa, but despite this, Yeddyurappa won the seat by a margin over 45,000 votes. He took the oath of office as Chief Minister on 30 May 2008.
In December 2008, Yeddyurappa was conferred an Honorary Doctorate by Saginaw Valley State University, USA
He had to resign on July 31st due to allegations on him by Congress stooge, the then Lokayukta Santhosh Hegde.
Wish him a very Happu Birthday. God bless you sir.