Bukanakere Siddaveerappa Yediyurappa, or BS Yediyurappa or simply BSY, is a phenomenon in Karnataka politics. It has been part of the state's political life for 36 years. Like him or not, no one can ignore his importance and his charisma.

Even his sworn enemies love his determination and tenacity. His friends and fans admire his unshakeable spirit. At 76, after six unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the HD Kumaraswamy-led government, he managed the seventh attempt after 18 days of dramatic dramas.

In the elections to the 2018 Assembly, Yediyurappa was at the head of the party. But the BJP stopped at 104. The majority mark of 113 escaped him and for the third time, he had to leave in just 56 hours after being sworn in as chief minister. Most had written his political obituary, declaring that Karnataka's policy was over.

But Yediyurappa has not lost hope. He decided to stay behind and fight. He was sworn in as CM Karnataka for the fourth time in the last 12 years. Each time, he had to move heaven and earth to direct the affairs of the state.

He was first sworn in as chief minister in 2007 with the help of JD (S). This experience collapsed in just seven days. Making Gowdas "treason" his main polling program, he led the BJP to victory, a first for the saffron party in South India in 2008. He had only three seats left to get the clear majority of 113. 38 months. After resigning from his post, he was sentenced to prison for corruption. His third term was the shortest, lasting only 56 hours.

Although Yediyurappa is now known as the highest leader of Lingayat, he has been known for most of his long political career as a farmer leader. His story is typical of wealth.

Born into a poor peasant family in Bukanakere in Mandya District in 1943, Yediyurappa lost his mother as a child. Life was hard for him. When he was in school, he sold lemons in the weekly markets to finance his studies and feed his family. He also worked in a factory as an assistant in Bengaluru.

In the early 1960s, he came into contact with the RSS and became a pracharak. He was sent to Shimoga to disseminate RSS activities. It changed his life forever and he never looked back. Leaving pracharak's work, he joined a rice mill as a clerk in Shiralakoppa in Shimoga District and eventually married the daughter of his owner.

He organized Jana Sangh's activities in Shimoga, the center of socialist parties. In the early 1970s, he was elected a member of Jana Sangh in the Shikaripura municipality. He became a voice of farmers and oppressed workers, organizing a march of slave laborers.

In 1983, he was elected to the Karnataka Assembly on a BJP ticket with 17 others. The BJP supported the Janata party government headed by Ramakrishna Hegde, the first non-Congress-based government in Karnataka. But this alliance collapsed in just 18 months. In the 1985 Assembly elections, the BJP won only two seats. After the other deputy, Vasantha Bangera, left the Janata party, Yediyurappa remained the only member of the BJP in the Assembly. By raising problems for farmers, he put the Hegde government on the carpet, earning him the nickname "fighter".

In the 1989 elections, the BJP managed to move from one seat to four. The Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the Lathra Yatra rath of LK Advani popularized the BJP in Karnataka. In the elections to the 1994 Assembly, the BJP became the main opposition party, winning 44 seats. When HD Deve Gowda became prime minister, BSY became the leader of the opposition.

In the elections to the 1999 Assembly, Yediyurappa had his first electoral defeat. Realizing that he would be rendered irrelevant without electricity, he chose to enter the upper chamber as an MLC.

In the 2004 elections, for the first time, the BJP became the largest party by winning 79 seats. Two years later, in a midnight coup, he toppled the NDS-led JDS government, led by N Dharam Singh, joined HD Kumaraswamy and formed a coalition government.