K. S. Eshwarappa

K. S. Eshwarappa was born in Bellary. His father Sharanappa and mother Bassamma moved to Shimoga in the early 1950s. His parents worked in the Bhoopalam Areca Mandi as daily wage workers. When young Eshwarappa also tried to go to work with his parents, his mother opposed the move and urged him to concentrate on his education and earn a good name in society. This inspiration that he got in his childhood, eventually led him to become a social worker.

As a child, Eshwarappa was interested in sports and music. One of his classmates was D. M. Ravindra who later became the Prant Pracharak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (R.S.S). Narasimha Murthy Iyengar, a well-known V.H.P leader in Shimoga, introduced him to the RSS during his childhood. Thus, his public life began as an activist of the RSS.

While he was a student in the National Commerce College, Shimoga, he actively worked with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (A.B.V.P), the student wing of RSS. After his graduation, he started his own private business in Shimoga city. He also involved himself with the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

During Emergency (1975–77), he was arrested and detained in the Bellary Jail. After the removal of emergency, he became very active in politics. He worked in different capacities and in 1982, became the president of the Shimoga city unit of BJP. His personal efforts were one of the main reasons in M. Ananda rao winning from Shimoga as the first ever BJP candidate.

In 1989, he contested the Karnataka assembly elections as a BJP candidate from Shimoga and defeated a heavyweight, the then health Minister K. H. Srinivas by a margin of 1,304 votes. He became popular with this victory and went on to win four more times from this constituency, losing only once in 1999. In 1992, he became the President of the State unit of BJP and was instrumental in his party's good performance in the 1994 state assembly elections. In 2000, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Central Silk Board when the NDA government was in power.[3]

In the BJP-JDS coalition Government headed by H. D. Kumaraswamy, he was Minister for Water Resources.[4] Following the historic victory of the BJP in the Karnataka state elections in 2008, he became the minister for Power in the B.S. Yeddyurappa government.[5]

In January 2010, he resigned as minister and was unanimously elected as the President of the Karnataka state unit of the ruling BJP.[6] This move was seen as BJP's strategy to tackle opposition leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah, who also belongs to the same community.[7]

In July 2012, following the resignation of D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar was appointed the Chief minister and Eshwarappa became Deputy Chief minister. He was also entrusted with the Revenue and Rural development portfolio's.[8][9] He then stepped down as the State BJP president and was succeeded by Prahlad Joshi.[10][11]

In the 2013 Assembly elections, Eshwarappa contested again from the Shimoga assembly constituency and lost to K. B. Prasanna Kumar of the Congress by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes.[12] Days after making an alleged “hate speech” against a minority community, Eshwarappa was slapped with a criminal case in April 2013 after electoral officials issued directions for it.[13]

However, he was nominated by his party to the Karnataka Legislative Council in 2014[14] and became the Leader of the Opposition in the council.[15]

In the 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election he again contested from Shimaga and won the seat. Further after the collapse of H. D. Kumaraswamy's coalition government, he was sworn in as the Rural development and Panchayat Raj minister. After the resignation of B. S. Yediyurappa he was again inducted as the cabinet minister under Basavaraj Bommai[16]

On 14 April 2022, Eshwarappa resigned from his position as Rural Development and Panchayat Raj minister after a controversy arose over his alleged role in the suicide of a contractor, Santhosh Patil, who wasn't paid for road works.[17][18]