Who Was SM Krishna, Veteran Politician Who Put Bengaluru On Global Map

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna, widely known as SM Krishna died today at the age of 92 at his home in Bengaluru. He is highly credited for putting Bengaluru on the global map as a boost given to the IT sector during his tenure resulting in the city growing as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’.

In January last year, he announced his retirement from active politics, citing his age as the reason.

Here are 5 things you must know about SM Krishna:

Born in Somanahalli in Karnataka’s Mandya district on May 1, 1932, SM Krishna also served as the External Affairs Minister and the Governor of Maharashtra.

A law graduate, SM 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.

He 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.

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 then associated with the Praja Socialist Party before joining the Congress. Ending his nearly 50-year-long association with the Congress, SM Krishna joined the BJP in March 2017.