first non-Congress chief minister of Karnataka. A master strategist, he cobbled up a two-thirds majority for his government by an arrangement of outside support from other parties. His government secured the outside support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Left parties and 16 Independents. Following the poor performance of the Janata Party in the 1984 elections to the 8th Lok Sabha (it won only 4 out of the 28 seats from Karnataka), Hegde resigned on the grounds that his party had lost its popular mandate and sought a fresh mandate for his government. In the 1985 elections, the Janata Party came to power on its own with a comfortable majority. As Chief Minister between 1983 and 1985 and again between 1985 and 1988, he became an active votary of State rights within a federal set-up, but one who made no concession to regional or linguistic chauvinism. Secondly, he took innovative initiatives in expanding the federal principle within the State, primarily in the area of devolving power to local bodies and in trying to enforce accountability. During his Chief Minister-ship, Karnataka pioneered legislation on Panchayat Raj that devolved a substantial degree of financial and administrative powers to a three-tiered structure of local government. He supported the tireless work of his Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Abdul Nazir Sab, in promoting devolution of power to the gram panchayats in the state, and the Karnataka implementation became a role model for the rest of India. In 1984 he introduced legislation to deal with official and administrative corruption through the institution of the Lokayukta. Also, he started the 'Kannada watchdog panel' to oversee the implementation of Kannada in administration. He has the rare distinction of presenting thirteen finance budgets in the state assembly. As Chief Minister, Hegde enjoyed immense personal popularity and was acknowledged as an efficient administrator. However, as days passed by, his rule was mired with several scams involving alleged corruption on the part of his own family. His son was accused of taking money for a medical seat. There were allegations made by the Congress (I) against him in a case involving the transfer of shares by the NGEF company. He submitted resignation from Chief Minister-ship on 13 February 1986 when the Karnataka High Court censured his government for the way it handled arrack bottling contracts, but withdrew his resignation after three days on 16 February. He resigned and