B S Yeddyurappa began his public career as the RSS Shikaripur unit secretary in 1970. Two tears later, he was elected President of the Jan Sangh Taluk unit.

In 1980, he was appointed President of the BJP's Shikaripur taluk unit, and then the party's Shimoga district unit. In 1988, he became President of the BJP state unit.

Yeddyurappa hogged limelight during the recent political turmoil in Karnataka when he helped HD Kumaraswamy bring down the Dharam Singh government.

As part of the BJP-JDS power sharing deal, Yeddyurappa was scheduled to become chief minister after Kumaraswamy had held the post for the first 20 months. He was nominated deputy chief minister as well as the finance minister in the Kumaraswamy government.

However, Kumaraswamy's refusal to step down from the post in October 2007 prompted the BJP to withdraw support from the government, putting the state under President's rule.

Political patch-ups saw Yeddyurappa assume the chief ministership in November, but the JDS later refused to support his government, and he had to resign after less than 10 days of taking charge.

Yeddyurappa, who is the first BJP chief minister of a South Indian state, is now seeking to reclaim the throne. He has followed astrologers' advice to change his name from Yediyurappa (as spelt earlier) to its present form, and the poll results will make it clear whether the ploy was fruitful!