Pramesh Jain
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)appointed Lingayat MLA and Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai as the next Chief Minister of Karnataka following BS Yediyurappa’s resignation.
Bommai will take oath on Wednesday at Rajbhavan.
Karnataka’s caretaker chief minister,BS Yediyurappa declared the name of his successor on Tuesday.Basavaraj Bommai.A final decision in this regard was taken during a legislative party meeting of the BJP at the Capitol Hotel in Bengaluru earlier today.Bommai’s name was seconded by KS Eshwarappa,R Ashok,Govind Karjol and the other MLAs.
A Lingayat leader, like his predecessor,Basavaraj Bommai (61) held multiple key portfolios- Home, Law and Parliamentary Affairs- until his elevation to the top post on Tuesday.
Like Yediyurappa (Banajiga sub-sect),Bommai (Sadar sub-sect), son of former Chief Minister SR Bommai also hails from the Lingayat community.
The community comprises about 17% of the state’s population and Bommai with his political experience was one of the favorites who were considered for being the new guard.
It was expected that the BJP will opt for a member from the community,considering it is the party’s prime vote bank and they cannot be seen as isolating the community by removing Yediyurappa as the Chief Minister.
The development was announced by Central observer and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday.
Bommai,61, to take oath as the state’s 26th chief minister on Wednesday.
Bommai,who was also said to be Yediyurappa’s recommendation for the position of CM,belongs to the Sadara Lingayat community.His father,SR Bommai,also served as Karnataka’s Chief Minister.
Before foraying into politics,Bommai was an engineer by profession after graduting from B V Bhoomreddy Engineering College in Hubbali and was an industrial entrepreneur.He also worked in Tata Motors for three years.
Bommai started his career in politics as a Youth Janata Dal member.Soon,he was appointed as the chief secretary to the then CM J H Patel in 1996.
Since joining the BJP in 2008,Bommai rose among the party ranks and went on to hold the portfolio of Water Resources Development for five continuous years from 2008 t0 2013 when the BJP was in power.
Bommai has been a party fixture and a close confidante to Yediyurappa.He is a two-time MLC and three-time MLA from Shiggaon in the Haveri district.
Interestingly,Bommai is one more in the line of fathers and sons who’ve both become CMs.
While Karnataka itself has the example of Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy,Mulayam and Akhilesh Yadav led UP,Odisha had Biju and Naveen at helm.Fathers of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh’s current CMs also led the states before.
Yediyurappa resigned from his post of Chief Minister of Karnataka on Monday, exactly two years after he took charge.
In an emotional farewell address,Yediyurappa termed his tenure as Chief Minister as an ‘agni pareeksha’.
His resignation was accepted by the Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot on Monday afternoon.
The resignation came after a drawn-out internal conflict within the BJP in which a few party leaders had made dissenting statements against Yediyurappa, particularly asking for his removal.
The decision was made by the BJP high command to replace Yediyurappa earlier this month.
Yediyurappa visited New Delhi this month along with his son BY Vijayendra to speak with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following which he resigned to his fate.
