When B S Yediyurappa broke away from the BJP

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday resigned from the post, drawing curtains on the uncertainty that surrounded his future. Soon after, Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accepted his resignation and asked him to continue as caretaker CM.

There seems to be no "closure" for B S Yediyurappa, the BJP's "comeback man" in Karnataka, as he could never complete a full term in office, despite becoming the Chief Minister four times, surmounting odds.

A hardboiled RSS swayamsevak, B S Yediyurappa, who is often credited for BJP's success in the state, had in 2012 broken his decades-long association with the saffron party and formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) before the next Assembly polls in 2013, heavily denting the saffron party’s poll prospects.

Fondly called "Raja Huli" (King Tiger) by his followers, he joined the RSS when he was barely 15 and rose his stature as BJP's only leader with a "mass leader" stature in South India, wielding considerable influence over the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community.

He could have landed in the hot seat in 2004 when the BJP emerged as the single largest party, but the Congress and JD(S) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda formed an alliance, and a government was formed under Dharam Singh.

Known for his political acumen, Yediyurappa joined hands with H D Kumaraswamy, Deve Gowda's son, in 2006 and brought down the Dharam Singh government.

Under a rotational chief ministership arrangement, Kumaraswamy became the CM and Yediyurappa his deputy.

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Yediyurappa became CM for the first time in November 2007 but his term lasted just seven days as Kumaraswamy reneged on a power sharing pact and walked out of the alliance.

He became the chief minister once again after the BJP came to power in May 2008 but had to step down in July 2011 following his indictment by the then Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde in an illegal mining case.

In the 2008 polls, Yediyurappa had led the party to victory, and the first BJP government in the south was formed under him, with the help of "Operation Kamala" (Operation Lotus) -- an alleged attempt of the BJP to engineer defection of opposition legislators to ensure the stability of the government.

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In 2011, he surrendered before the Lokayukta court after it issued a warrant against him in connection with alleged land scams, and was in jail for a week. Sulking after having been made to quit, Yediyurappa broke his association with the BJP and formed the KJP.

Back to BJP in 2014

However, ploughing a lonely furrow, he failed to make the KJP a force to reckon with in state politics but wrecked the BJP's chances of retaining power in the 2013 polls, winning six seats and polling about 10 per cent votes.

As Yediyurappa faced an uncertain future and the BJP looked for a leader with a formidable reputation to lend its campaign the required heft ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the two cosied up to each other, leading to the KJP's merger with the BJP on January 9, 2014.

(With PTI inputs)