- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
VETERAN Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Basavaraj Bommai was on Wednesday (28) set to take oath as the next and 23rd chief minister of the South Indian state of Karnataka, succeeding BS Yediyurappa, who stepped down on Monday (26), which marked the exact second anniversary of the saffron government in the state.
The 61-year-old Bommai, who joined the BJP in 2008, served in various departments in the government of Karnataka. He was the minister of home affairs as well as the minister of law and parliamentary affairs in the Yediyurappa government. Bommai’s elevation as the chief minister of the southern state where India’s information technology capital Bangalore is located also saw his family’s political history coming full circle. Bommai’s late father SR Bommai had also served as a chief minister of Karnataka briefly in the late 1980s and was also a central minister between 1996 and 1998.
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The Bommais are not the only father-son duo to have occupied the post of Karnataka chief minister. In the past H D Deve Gowda (also a former Indian prime minister) was the chief minister between December 1994 and May 1996. His son H D Kumaraswamy was also chief minister in 2006-07 and 2018-19.
Yediyurappa’s exit was not without risk since he is the tallest leader from the state’s important Lingayat community, which constitutes 16 per cent of the state’s population of 68 million. The BJP was faced with a challenge of maintaining its dominance in the only southern state where it is in power post Yediyurappa’s departure, which was not a smooth affair.
Bommai’s appointment was not difficult to understand since he too is from the Lingayat community. The Karnataka BJP legislature party on Tuesday (27) elected Bommai as its new leader and he reportedly had the backing of his predecessor.
“The new leader proposal was made by senior leader B S Yediyurappa and was supported by Govind Karjol, R Ashok, K S Eshwarappa, B Sriramulu, S T Somashekar, Poornima Srinivas, and the newly elected legislature party leader and new Chief Minister will be Basavaraj Bommai,” BJP’s central observers and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said after the meeting.
Bommai, who was born in northern Karnataka, was with the Janata Dal (United) before joining the BJP. He defected along with 22 other JD(U) leaders.
Ironically, his father, who was a staunch socialist who was a member of the Janata Party and then the Janata Dal, is best remembered for a landmark case in the Supreme Court of India – SR Bommai versus Union of India – that he fought after losing his government in Karnataka owing to defections. The judgment in the case laid down the central guidelines against the misuse of Article 356 of the Indian Constitution by the Union government to impose president’s rule on states with unfriendly government.
The junior Bommai is a mechanical engineer by education who reportedly began his career with Tata Sons and also held the water resources department when the BJP came to power in Karnataka for the first time.
He is married to Chennamma and the couple have a son and daughter and reside in Dharwad district in northern Karnataka. He likes to read, write and play golf and cricket.
