Basappa Danappa Jatti

Basappa Danappa Jatti (10 September 1912 – 7 June 2002) was the fifth vice president of India, serving from 1974 to 1979. He was the acting president of India from 11 February to 25 July 1977. He also served as the chief minister of Karnataka. Jatti rose from a being a Municipality member to India's second-highest office during a five-decade-long chequered political career. Early life Jatti was born in a Kannada speaking Lingayat family at Savalgi in Jamkhandi Taluk of Bijapur district in present-day Karnataka on 10 September 1912. His parents were Dasappa Jatti and Sangamma. Jatti studied at the PB High School Jamkhandi and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rajaram College and a degree in law from the Sykes Law College, Kolhapur. Jatti practiced as a lawyer for a while in Jamkhandi before being elected to the Jamkhandi municipality in 1940 and going on to become its president. He was elected to the Jamakhandi State Legislature, becoming a minister and subsequently its chief minister. Early political career In 1940, he entered politics as a Municipality member at Jamkhandi and subsequently became the president of the Jamkhandi Town Municipality in 1945. Later, he was elected as a member of the Jamkhandi State Legislature and was appointed a minister in the government of the princely state of Jamkhandi. Finally, he became the 'dewan' (chief minister) of Jamkhandi state in 1948. As dewan, he maintained cordial relations with the Maharaja, Shankar Rao Patwardhan, and brought about the accession of the small principality to the Indian Union. On 8 March 1948 after Jamkhandi was merged with Bombay state, he returned to legal practice and continued with it for 20 months. Later, Jatti was nominated as a member of the Bombay State Legislative Assembly to represent the merged area, and within a week of his nomination, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the then Bombay chief minister, B. G. Kher. He worked in that capacity for a couple of years. After the 1952 general elections, he was appointed Minister of Health and Labour of the then Bombay government and held that post till the reorganization of states. His autobiography, 'I'm my own model', is very popular.