List of chief ministers of Karnataka
The chief minister of Karnataka is the chief executive of the Indian state of Karnataka. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is a state's "de jure" head, but "de facto" executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the state's governor usually invites the party (or coalition) with a majority of seats to form the government in the state. The governor appoints the chief minister, whose council of ministers are collectively responsible to the assembly. Given that he has the confidence of the assembly , the chief minister's term is for five years and is subject to no term limits. Since 1947, twenty-two people have been chief minister of Mysore (as the state was known before 1 November 1973) or Karnataka. A majority of them belonged to the Indian National Congress party, including inaugural office-holder K. Chengalaraya Reddy. The longest-served chief minister, D. Devaraj Urs, held the office for over seven years in the 1970s. While Congress's Veerendra Patil had the largest gap between two terms (over eighteen years). One chief minister, H. D. Deve Gowda, went on to become  the eleventh Prime Minister of India, while another, B. D. Jatti, served as the country's fifth Vice President. B. S. Yediyurappa who was the first chief minister from BJP served as the Chief Minister of the state for four terms in 2007, 2008, 2018 and 2019, the only one to do so in the history of Karnataka. In total BSY ruled the state for 5 years, 75 days and went on to be the fourth-longest served CM after Devaraj Urs, S Nijalingappa and Ramakrishna Hegde. S. R. Bommai ruled the state from the Janata Parivar, whose son Basavaraj  Bommai too became the Chief Minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party. There have been six instances of president's rule in Karnataka, most recently in 2007–08. The incumbent chief minister is the Bharatiya Janata Party's Basavaraj Bommai sworn in on 28 July 2021 as the Chief Minister of the state. Living former chief ministers. As of 10 2022, there are Eight living former chief ministers of Karnataka: The most recent death of a former chief minister was that of Dharam Singh on 27 July 2017, aged 80.