Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna (1 May 1932 – 10 December 2024) was an Indian politician who served as Minister of External Affairs of India from 2009 to October 2012.

He is widely credited with putting Bengaluru on the world map by building the foundation for it to become the IT Hub that it is today during his tenure as Chief Minister.

[3] S. M. Krishna was the son of S. C. Mallaiah, born on 1 May 1932[4] to a Vokkaliga family in a village named Somanahalli in the Maddur Taluk of Mandya district, Karnataka.

[7] Soon after his return to India, Krishna started his electoral political career in the year 1962 by winning the Maddur Vidhana Sabha seat.

[8] Krishna ran as an independent, defeating K V Shankar Gowda, the prominent politician from the Indian National Congress for whom Jawaharlal Nehru had campaigned.

He won the by-poll for Mandya (Lok Sabha constituency) in 1968 when the sitting MP died, defeating the Congress nominee.

Mandya remained a Congress stronghold, represented in Lok Sabha later by his political proteges such as Ambareesh and Divya Spandana (also known as Ramya).

S M Krishna resigned from Lok Sabha in 1972, and became a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council and was appointed a minister by Devaraj Urs.

[20] In his tenure as the external affairs minister, he visited a number of countries including Tajikistan in 2012 to strengthen economic and energy ties.

[38][39][40] He was cremated with state honours complete with gun salute at his ancestral village of Somanahalli in Maddur taluk of Mandya district on 11 December.