B D Jatti Biography

Shri Basappa Danappa Jatti, the former Vice-President (1974-1980) of India, was born in Bijapur district of Karnataka on September 10, 1912. After completing his Law graduation from Sykes Law College, Kolhapur, B D Jatti did his legal practice as an advocate for a very short span of time in his home town Jamakhandi.

In 1940, he entered in politics as a Municipality member at Jamakhandi and finally was elected as a member of the Jamakhandi State Legislature. After entering politics as a municipality member in 1940, B D Jatti never looked back. In his long and eventful political career traversing more than five decades, he served in many important positions in the Government and finally became the acting president on February 11, 1977.

After Jamakhandi merged with Bombay state in 1948, B D Jatti became the nominated member of the merged state in the Bombay State Legislative Assembly. In the same week he was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister of Bombay, Mr B.G.Kher. After serving for two years as the private secretary to the Bombay Chief Minister, B D Jatti was appointed as the Deputy Minister for Health and Labor. After that B D Jatti was appointed as the chairman of Land Reforms Committee in the Mysore Legislative Assembly. In 1958 he was elected as the Chief Minister of Mysore and continued in this position till 1962. In the third general elections in 1962, he was re-elected from Jamkhandi constituency and appointed as Finance Minister in the Nijalingappa Ministry.

B D Jatti came to the national scene in 1968 when he became the Lt Governor of Pondicherry. After a period of five years, in 1973, he was appointed as the Governor of Orissa. The subsequent year in 1974, B D Jatti moved to New Delhi to assume the office of the Vice-President of India. He was also the ex- officio Chairman, Rajya Sabha till 1979. He also held the Office of the President Of India for a brief period of 5 months from February 11, 1977 to July 25, 1977 due to the sudden death of Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, the then President of India. He passed away on 8th June 2002.