 Later, he was elected as a member of the first Lok Sabha from the Chitaldrug constituency (now Chitradurga) then in Mysore state in 1952.The services rendered by Nijalingappa towards the unification of Karnataka was enormous, and in recognition of the same, he was chosen as the first Chief Minister of the unified state.Then again for the second time, he was elected to the same responsible post and he continued in that post up to April 1968.