Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna is an Indian politician who served as Minister of External Affairs of India from 2009 to October 2012. He was the 16th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 1999 to 2004 and the 19thGovernor of Maharashtra from 2004 to 2008. SM Krishna had served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Vidhan Sabha from December 1989 to January 1993. He was also a member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at various times from 1971 to 2014.
He is married to Prema. They have two daughters. His daughter Malavika Krishna was married to the Late V. G. Siddhartha, a businessman and the founder of Cafe Coffee Day. At the dawn of his political life, he released his biography "Smritivahini" in the presence of many dignatories. He has penned many interesting incidents including VeerappanKidnapping of Rajkumar during his tenure as the chief minister. He has also quoted that the former prime minister, national president of Janata Dal, H. D. Devegowda had strong plans of joining Indian National Congress twice during the period of National emergency.
Political career
Krishna started his political career with Praja Socialist Party in the year 1962. He had won against a prominent politician from Indian National Congress for whom Jawaharlal Nehru had campaigned in . He served multiple terms as an MP from the Mandya district of Karnataka starting from 1968 in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th Lok Sabha. In 1968 he was influential in reconciliation between members of the Indian National Congress and Praja Socialist Party. He later joined the Congress served as minister under Indira Gandhi between 1983–84 and Rajiv Gandhi between 1984 and 1985 as minister of state for industry and finance respectively. He was member of the Rajya Sabha in the years 1996 and 2006. He was member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and council at different times. Between 1989 and 1992 he was Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka. In 1999, as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, he led his party to victory in the assembly polls and took over as Chief Minister of Karnataka, a post he held until 2004. He was also instrumental in creating power reforms with ESCOMS and digitization of land records and many other citizen friendly initiatives. He encouraged private public participation and was a fore bearer of the Bangalore Advance Task Force. He later became the Governor of Maharashtra. Krishna resigned as Governor of Maharashtra on 5 March 2008. It was reported that this was due to his intention to return to active politics in Karnataka. President Pratibha Patil accepted his resignation on 6 March. Krishna entered 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. Krishna resigned as External Affairs Minister on 26 October 2012 indicating a return to Karnataka state politics. Krishna resigned as a member of INC on 29 January 2017 quoting that the party was in a "state of confusion" on whether it needed mass leaders or not. He also complained of having been sidelined by the party and that the party was "dependent on managers and not time-tested people like ". After speculations on his joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, he formally joined the party in March 2017.
